A white light flashed at the edge of the black forest, and a man and a rabbit suddenly appeared out of thin air, right near the place where Zhang Yiyi had accidentally entered the Bai family cave.

"Maoqiu, you were too slow. I was almost beaten to death by that old man from the Bai family."

The first thing Zhang Yiyi said after coming out was to mutter about Maoqiu. Of course, she also took the healing pill and swallowed it immediately.

Although the whip from the Bai family ancestor did not fall on her in the end, the suppression in the realm and the gap in strength inevitably caused her blood circulation to become disordered and she suffered some internal injuries.

Fortunately, the injury wasn't fatal, and since she had taken a high-grade healing pill, after adjusting her breathing, there was no major issue.

But back then, the situation had been incredibly dangerous. If Maoqiu had been even a little bit later, she would have either been dead or crippled by now, an easy target for others to take advantage of, and all her plans would have been a complete joke.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness. In the end, we still made it out safely and smoothly, didn't we?"

Maoqiu's little heart was still pounding, but aside from that fleeting moment of danger, it was more filled with excitement and joy from successfully seizing the Netherworld Flame.

The old ancestor of the Bai family was truly blind, treating Maoqiu as nothing more than a regular spirit beast. He hadn't paid any attention to its movements, much less imagined that it could brazenly swallow the flame without any consequences.

Hahaha, although the cost was high, the Yellow Spring Flame was now finally Maoqiu's!

"We made it out? Maoqiu, explain to me—this is what you call a distance of at least five or six miles?"

As her energy settled, Zhang Yiyi noticed that the surrounding scenery looked strangely familiar.

With just a glance, she could tell that this wasn't five or six miles away at all. It was exactly the same spot she had accidentally stumbled into earlier—not more, not less!

Zhang Yiyi was furious and felt the urge to give Maoqiu a good beating. It still had the nerve to claim everything had gone smoothly. They were clearly still right under the Bai family's nose; they had only broken through their formation.

"Huh? It seems like the distance is just a tad short."

Realizing where they were, Maoqiu felt a tiny bit guilty. "Blame that stupid Tracking Mirror for showing up at the worst possible time. If it hadn't revealed itself early, I wouldn't have needed to burn through so much spiritual energy. I could've ripped open the space and escaped farther."

But honestly, things hadn't turned out so bad. After all, claiming the Netherworld Flame had cost it a lot of energy. To say they managed to tear open space and escape so smoothly was quite lucky.

Of course, Maoqiu wouldn't dare say that aloud to Zhang Yiyi. Who knew how the female cultivator would react?

"You're something else!"

Zhang Yiyi didn't have time to keep arguing with Maoqiu. She immediately bolted north at full speed.

Maoqiu, feeling a little wronged after Zhang Yiyi's harsh scolding, wanted to retort but quickly shut its mouth, not daring to interrupt as she fled with it in tow.

Oh no, it really was too close. In the blink of an eye, the Bai family ancestor's aura was already surging toward them. No wonder Zhang Yiyi didn't waste another word before taking off.

"You little beasts, stop right there!"

The Bai family patriarch quickly spotted the fleeing duo—a girl and a rabbit—racing north at full speed. At this point, he couldn't care less about conserving his energy or the rapid drain on his life force.

If he failed to recover the Yellow Spring Flame, there would be no hope of completing the Five Yin Soul Sacrifice, and his life would inevitably come to an end!

"You're the little beast! Your whole family are little beasts!"

Zhang Yiyi didn't have time to retort, but Maoqiu had already cursed the Bai family patriarch in every way possible in its mind.

Unfortunately, such curses had no effect. The difference in cultivation levels between the Bai family patriarch and Zhang Yiyi became glaringly obvious as he closed in on them at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Seeing this, Maoqiu lost even the desire to curse. It anxiously wanted to help, wishing it could strike the old fossil behind them with a thunderbolt.

But after using several large-scale space spells, its spiritual energy had been drained too quickly. Any lightning attack it could muster now would be little more than a tickle to the Bai family patriarch.

At this critical moment, Maoqiu could only pin all its hopes on Zhang Yiyi, praying she could run faster, much faster, and not let the old ghost catch up.

"Yiyi, you're heading the wrong way! That's not towards the city!"

As the Bai family patriarch drew closer, Maoqiu realized Zhang Yiyi wasn't even running toward Jiagu Guan City and couldn't help but shout a reminder.

This girl wasn't thinking clearly! Why wasn't she heading toward the city? After all, a Nascent Soul cultivator resided in the City Lord's Mansion, and even the Bai family patriarch wouldn't dare act recklessly there.

"Shut up!"

With the patriarch in pursuit and Maoqiu adding confusion, Zhang Yiyi roared to silence it.

Running toward Jiagu Guan City would be foolish. She would be caught long before reaching it, and it would do no good. Heading north, however, offered a glimmer of hope.

Thanks to the map Liuzi had given her, Zhang Yiyi knew there was a mysterious natural maze forest less than ten miles north. Once inside, anyone below the Divine Transformation stage would be affected by its terrain.

If she made it into the forest, it would be like disappearing into thin air. The Bai family patriarch would have a much harder time catching her.

This was her best chance to escape, but there was no time to explain all that to Maoqiu right now.

After being scolded, Maoqiu shut its mouth, feeling a bit wronged.

Suddenly, seeing the Bai family patriarch getting even closer, it instinctively wanted to speak up again, but Zhang Yiyi quickly interrupted.

"Hold on tight!"

Maoqiu had no idea what Zhang Yiyi was planning at this moment, but it instinctively chose to trust her. It clung tightly to her collar, determined to ensure it wouldn't fall off no matter what happened.

As she reminded Maoqiu, Zhang Yiyi took out one of the magical treasures from the bag Zheng He had given her last time. Without even looking, she tossed it behind at the Bai family patriarch, who was now getting alarmingly close.

"Boom!"

The magical treasure exploded right in front of the Bai family patriarch.

While the explosion didn't have enough power to truly injure him, the effects of the detonation were not to be underestimated; it effectively interrupted the Bai family patriarch's pursuit, which was getting dangerously close.

Taking advantage of the moment, Zhang Yiyi channeled her spiritual energy and ran at full speed. Driven by a fierce desire to survive, her speed surged.

"You shameless brat!"

The Bai family patriarch, stunned by the explosion, found himself pushed back further away from Zhang Yiyi. Enraged, he struck forward with a palm.

Unfortunately for him, Zhang Yiyi was already on guard, and the distance had grown too great. His palm strike was a wasted effort.

"You little beast! Let's see how many magical treasures you can afford to self-destruct! Let's see where you think you can escape to!"

These attacks were utterly ineffective, only fueling the Bai family patriarch's anger and embarrassment as he flew after her at full speed.

"You old fossil, you really talk too much! Just a piece of trash who'll never have the chance to advance to DivineTransformation, struggling in vain, and you think you're such a big deal!"

After running for a while, Zhang Yiyi noticed that the crazy dog behind her had indeed closed the distance again and was about to catch up. Gritting her teeth, she cursed under her breath and threw another magical treasure behind her, causing it to explode decisively.

Haha, she had plenty of good things on her; she could keep running to the ends of the earth!

The distance between them widened again. It was the same familiar formula, the same familiar effect. Repeating the method didn't matter as long as it worked.

Thus, Zhang Yiyi kept running ahead, with the Bai family patriarch chasing behind. Every time he got close, there would be another loud explosion from a self-destructing magical treasure, and they continued their noisy race toward the maze forest in the north.

After who knows how many explosions, the Bai family patriarch felt like he might just die of anger himself.

Every time he was about to catch that little beast, she would pull out a magical treasure to self-destruct and obstruct him. Who on earth raised such a prodigal child?

How many valuable things did she have? It seemed like she could take them out endlessly, squandering them without a second thought. If she were one of his Bai family descendants, he would have slapped that prodigal child into a bloody pulp by now!

Yet, no matter how furious, enraged, or reluctant the Bai family patriarch felt, he couldn't stop Zhang Yiyi from squandering her treasures to save her life.

In fact, after getting used to the pain of losing them at the beginning, Zhang Yiyi had grown increasingly indifferent, tossing them away as easily as throwing out radishes and cabbages.

Eventually, she watched as the Bai family patriarch looked on helplessly while she dove into the maze forest and vanished from view, slipping away once more right under his nose. He spat out a mouthful of blood in frustration.

He wished he could just rush in and flay that little beast who had stolen his Yellow Spring Flame, wishing to turn her to ash and scatter her soul, but that little beast actually managed to escape into the maze forest!

The Bai family patriarch held back from following her in, knowing better than anyone that once inside, it would take an eternity to get out, especially while trying to find someone who was intent on escaping or hiding.

He didn't have the luxury of time to waste in the maze forest. After all, if he was unlucky, the little bit of life he had left would be gone.

Without the Yellow Spring Flame, he could no longer continue the Five Yin Soul Sacrifice, and without it, he couldn't create a soul artifact. His hopes of breaking through the bottleneck to reach Divine Transformation and continue living would also evaporate.

In a moment, the Bai family patriarch found himself outside the maze forest, torn between the decision to chase or not. Every option brought him pain and despair.

Finally, thinking of the remaining treasures in the cave, and that the little beast who had stolen his Yellow Spring Flame might indeed have contacted others and spread the news of what was happening in the cave, the Bai family patriarch ultimately steeled himself and turned to leave.

After all, that little beast foolishly running into a place like that wouldn't find it easy to get out, and she might even lose her life in there.

He had to figure out a way to preserve his own life first before considering anything else.

Not long after the Bai family patriarch left, Zhang Yiyi, who seemed to have entered the maze forest, quietly emerged.

Fortunately, the Bai family patriarch was no longer there; otherwise, upon seeing that the person he was trying to catch had deceived him and hadn't truly entered the maze forest, he would surely have spat out more blood in anger and lost his life in a fit.

"Finally rid of that old fossil!"

Maoqiu sighed in relief, loosening its grip on Zhang Yiyi's collar.

Just as it was about to ask whether they were heading back to Jiagu Guan City or going directly back to Yunxian Sect, it turned to find that Zhang Yiyi's expression was one of deep distress.

"What's wrong?"

Maoqiu felt a sense of foreboding. Could she be looking to settle accounts with it so soon?

Although it had torn through space to escape slightly shorter than before, at least they were safe now, right?

To give it a thousand excuses, even if she wanted to settle accounts, could they not wait just a moment? What if that disgusting old Bai family patriarch came back looking for trouble?

This wasn't a truly safe place. Until its Yellow Spring Flame was fully refined into part of its body, it couldn't feel secure.

"What's wrong? You tell me what's wrong!"

Zhang Yiyi stared at Maoqiu, responding sarcastically.

At this moment, she had preserved her life, but her storage ring was severely depleted.

Not only had she lost all the good things Zheng He and Zhu Qing had previously given her, but even the things her senior brother had prepared for her were nearly gone.

It seemed that one couldn't just spout nonsense; back at Liuyun Mine, she had said she exhausted her good things to save her life. Now, not long after, she really had lost them all.

"If you don't tell me what's wrong, how would I know what's wrong?"

Maoqiu braced itself, completely unaware of what Zhang Yiyi had just thrown away to self-destruct in order to buy time for their escape.

After all, to it, those things were utterly useless; if they were thrown away, they were thrown away.

"Maoqiu, are you genuinely clueless or just pretending? Just now, to escape for my life, I tossed away countless treasures! Those were spiritual stones, so many spiritual stones, do you understand?"

Zhang Yiyi gritted her teeth and shot Maoqiu a glare, suddenly feeling she had no desire to concoct any special beast pills for this heartless little creature anymore.

"Oh, so that's what it is! I thought it was something serious!"

Upon hearing that it wasn't a matter of settling accounts, Maoqiu immediately felt relieved and, in a rare moment of kindness, comforted her, "What's there to be afraid of? It's just a little thing that's gone; after all, we still have so many heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and so many in Liuyun mines!"

Compared to those truly valuable items, the self-destructed treasures were barely worth mentioning. It was no wonder Maoqiu dismissed them.

Zhang Yiyi naturally understood this logic, and she knew that sometimes you had to lose to gain. Without those treasures being thrown away, they wouldn't have escaped successfully.

However, Maoqiu's indifferent tone still annoyed her. Fortunately, they still had plenty of heavenly materials, earthly treasures, and Liuyun mines to sustain them, which eased her heart somewhat.

Forget it, she wasn't that unreasonable, nor did she see enemies where there were none. Such a significant loss should be blamed on the Bai family; it would be foolish to vent her anger on her contract beast.

"No matter how many good things there are, we can't let the Bai family scum take advantage of us!"

A moment later, Zhang Yiyi's tone shifted sharply, directly pointing the finger at the Bai family. "Hmph, this isn't over!"

"Right, it's not over!"

Maoqiu, ever perceptive, echoed Zhang Yiyi, knowing that as long as the blame didn't fall on it, everything was fine. After spending so much time with Zhang Yiyi, it had learned more about survival. "So what are you planning to do?"

"What to do? Of course, we have to take down the Bai family in one fell swoop!"

Zhang Yiyi squinted her eyes, already plotting her next moves.

A group like the Bai family, who was such a toxic scourge, should be eliminated for good.