Indeed, as Zhang Yiyi expected, those powerful figures flocking to the Bai family's cave in search of the "mysterious treasure" quickly broke in.

Unfortunately, they did not find any treasure; instead, they were shocked to the core by the sea of blood and mountains of corpses created by the Bai family.

The Bai family's actions were naturally not tolerated by the world; calling them evil cultivators would be a light assessment. With so many lives lost and such cruel methods employed, how could they ever hope for a chance at redemption?

The ritual of the Five Yin Souls Sacrifice had not been seen for thousands of years, and now it seemed the Bai family had almost completed it, which was a chilling thought.

"This time, it was a case of mistaken timing that exposed the Bai family's conspiracy ahead of schedule. Otherwise, if the Five Yin Souls Sacrifice ritual had been successfully completed, who knows what kind of bloodbath the Bai family would unleash in the future?"

Zheng He said angrily, "It's a pity that the Bai family's ancestor managed to escape with the Yellow Spring Fire. He only cared about saving himself and completely ignored the fate of the numerous descendants of his family."

After listening for a while, Zhang Yiyi finally realized that the Bai family's ancestor had indeed escaped quickly, right under the noses of so many powerful figures.

Everyone subconsciously believed that the Yellow Spring Fire, the core of the Five Yin Souls Sacrifice ritual, had been taken away by the Bai family's ancestor during his escape. This inadvertently cleared her and Maoqiu of suspicion.

Without the crucial Yellow Spring Fire, and having lost an entire family that could gather resources and capture cultivator sacrifices for him, the possibility of the Bai family's ancestor finding a place to continue concocting such a deranged evil art like the Five Yin Souls ritual was minimal.

Not to mention, the Bai family's ancestor had already pushed his life-extending abilities to their limits and could only look forward to a dead end in the near future.

Thinking about this, Zhang Yiyi wasn't particularly worried about this hidden danger; instead, the remaining ambitious individuals of the Bai family posed a greater threat.

"Besides the Bai family's ancestor, who else is left in the Bai family now?"

She instinctively asked.

"Aside from the Bai family's ancestor, Bai Jiu and Bai Heng also escaped, while everyone else, including the head of the Bai family, has been wiped out."

Speaking of this, Zheng He showed no sympathy: "The Bai family members in the cave, apart from the three who escaped, were all wiped out on the spot. They deserved to die, having blood on their hands from so many lives. Over fifty cultivators were rescued who hadn't yet been sacrificed. Most of them were rogue cultivators, but a small portion were from collateral branches of various families. It's a pity that although they were saved and spared their lives, they had their foundations destroyed by spells and have essentially become useless."

After a pause, Zheng He continued, "As for the other Bai family members in the city, they had originally not intended to kill everyone, but they were vicious by nature. After realizing that their actions were exposed, instead of repenting, they killed quite a few people sent by the city lord's residence and other families. In the end, they brought about their own destruction, and everyone, including the head of the Bai family, was killed on the spot. From then on, there was no Bai family left in Jiagu Guan City."

"......"

Zhang Yiyi fell silent. No wonder she heard that during the lockdown these past few days, many people had been captured outside the city gates; it seemed they had caught the Bai family's remaining stragglers trying to escape.

She wasn't sure if the Bai family members in the city truly wouldn't surrender even if it meant their downfall, as Zheng He claimed, but it was certain that even if the head of the Bai family wanted to endure humiliation to survive, other forces would never let the Bai family go, unwilling to miss such a good opportunity to swallow them up.

However, Zhang Yiyi felt no surprise at the Bai family's fate; after all, the countless tortured souls in the cave were enough to make the Bai family pay in full.

A plan executed with the strength of an entire clan meant that no one could be considered innocent. From the day they decided to implement it, they should have known that retribution would someday fall upon their kin, descendants, and the old and young of their clan.

"Linlin, the Bai family deserves to die. You don't think we..."

Seeing Zhang Yiyi silent, Zheng He mistakenly thought that she felt their actions in completely annihilating the Bai family, even sparing no children, were too cruel.

But not removing the root of the problem would only lead to greater troubles. Who knew how such a perverse and evil family like the Bai family indoctrinated their children?

The true solution was to uproot the entire family all at once, but unfortunately, the only regret was that the Bai family's ancestor, Bai Jiu, and Bai Heng had escaped.

"Brother Zheng, you misunderstood."

After a moment, Zhang Yiyi quickly shook her head, signaling Zheng He not to overthink, and then asked another important question: "Since the Bai family no longer exists, how will those mutated ants in the Black Marsh Liuyun Mine be handled?"

Originally, that mine belonged to the Bai family, so the troublesome matter was naturally theirs to resolve. But now that the Bai family was gone, what would happen to the increasingly dangerous group of mutated ants?

Although those mutated ants were currently reluctant to leave the Liuyun Mine due to the special black substance beneath the mine, as long as humans didn't enter their territory, there wouldn't be any danger—at least, not for now.

However, as time went on, those mutated ants would grow stronger by continually consuming the special substance. One could never be sure that one day, when the supply of strengthening material ran out, these mutated beasts wouldn't change locations or actively attack nearby humans.

In any case, Zhang Yiyi felt that if the mutated ants weren't dealt with properly, they would inevitably become a major disaster again.

Hearing that Zhang Yiyi didn't misunderstand him but was actually concerned about the mutated ant group in the Liuyun Mine, Zheng He breathed a sigh of relief.

"You don't need to worry about those mutated ants anymore."

He quickly explained, "Before I came to see you, I had just returned from the Black Marsh Liuyun Mine, and all the mutated ants there have been cleared out—not a single one is left."

"Ah, who's so powerful?"

Upon hearing that so many mutated ants had been completely eradicated, Zhang Yiyi was shocked.

It was well known that the mine had special suppressive forces, making it impossible for high-level cultivators to enter. Even someone at her foundation-building level would have nearly met their end there without Maoqiu's help. Who had such great capability to wipe out the vast number of mutated ants in one go?

"It was the Zhu family."

Zheng He did not keep it a secret: "Someone from the Zhu family possesses high-level fire, specifically designed to deal with those mutated ants. They sent a junior of foundation-building level in with it, and a single fire burned all those ants to ashes. However, nobody knows what kind of fire it was; the Zhu family is very tight-lipped about it, even Zhu Qing is unaware. But this time, the Zhu family didn't have much luck."

As he said this, Zheng He seemed to recall something and couldn't help but laugh: "You don't know, the Zhu family initially went for the Liuyun Mine, so they were willing to trade the clearing of the mutated ant group for ten years of new mining rights to the Liuyun Mine. Who would have thought that after working so hard, they wiped out the mutated ants only to find that the Liuyun Mine was completely empty? The Zhu family is currently making a fuss at the city lord's residence, saying they paid such a high price, and that the fire would need to be dormant for another twenty or thirty years before being usable again. Yet they ended up with an empty mine and can't accept this outcome at all."

"......"

Zhang Yiyi felt a little guilty for some unknown reason. If the Zhu family knew that all the Liuyun Mine resources were in her pocket, she wondered what their expressions would be like.

"Tsk tsk, you don't believe it either, right? I don't believe it either! What twenty or thirty years? That's a lie. Even Zhu Qing secretly guessed to me that there must be some loss of strange fire, but it's definitely not as exaggerated as they said. It's only three to five years at most, no more than ten years."

Zheng He didn't realize what Zhang Yiyi was thinking and assumed she shared his disbelief regarding the Zhu family's words: "The Zhu family exaggerates just to ask for more compensation. After all, no one expected that all the Liuyun Mine would be completely consumed by those mutated ants. With the Liuyun Mine gone, the Zhu family would definitely look for other benefits. No family wants to lose out on a piece of the Bai family's territory, and I couldn't be bothered to deal with it; let my old man suffer that headache."

By this point, Zheng He had basically finished everything he needed to do. He was too lazy to get involved in the remaining matters, so he eagerly ran over to find Zhang Yiyi.

Upon hearing the key points in Zheng He's words, Zhang Yiyi once again breathed a silent sigh of relief. So, they all believed that the Liuyun Mine had been completely depleted by the mutated ant group.

Well, now that someone else was carrying the blame, and all the mutated ants had been burned to ashes, there was nothing more to investigate. Zhang Yiyi finally felt at ease.

"Hehe, you're right. Distributing benefits is never a simple matter; if it's not handled well, you'll end up in trouble. It's better to just not get involved."

She laughed along, appearing to completely agree.

However, with this, the Liuyun Mine resources in her pocket could no longer appear in Jiagu Guan City. Even the small amount that Shi Feng had temporarily stored with her couldn't be returned; she could only exchange it for spirit stones or other items of similar value.

Seeing that Zhang Yiyi was so supportive and concerned about him, Zheng He became even happier. He then remembered that he had promised to take Zhang Yiyi to the auction but had been unable to due to various reasons. Now that he finally had some free time, he decided he must take her to it.

"By the way, Linlin, there's an auction in the city three days from now. I heard it's the largest one in recent years, and there will be quite a few good things available."

He enthusiastically invited her, "Let's go together. Who knows, we might really come across one or two treasures that catch our eye."

Of course, even if they didn't bid and just went to see the sights, it would be worthwhile. If they did find something they liked, there would be no need to worry about having enough spirit stones—after all, he was there to help.

Zhang Yiyi had originally planned to return to her sect in a day or two, but upon hearing Zheng He mention the upcoming auction and that it would be the largest in recent years, she naturally felt tempted and decided to wait a few days to attend the auction before heading back.

"Alright, we'll go together in three days. I've never been to one before," she nodded and replied. Thinking about her limited spirit stones, she asked, "But I don't have many spirit stones on me. Fortunately, I still have a few thousand-year-old herbs from when I went to Elder Jia Fang's cave with Brother Zheng last time that I can exchange for some money. Do you think I should sell a few of those in advance for spirit stones, or wait until the auction and directly use the herbs to offset the cost if I really find something I like?"

Hearing Zhang Yiyi's words, Zheng He immediately gave her an answer: "It'd be a pity to sell the thousands of years old herbs so casually. Although they're common herbs, their age makes them very useful. So, here's what we'll do: you keep the herbs for now. If you don't have enough spirit stones at the auction, I'll help you out first. We'll figure out how to settle the accounts later; I won't let you suffer any losses."

"Alright, then I'll trouble you, Brother Zheng."

With Zheng He, such a wealthy person, willing to help her out first, Zhang Yiyi naturally had no objections.

After all, she wasn't asking for his spirit stones for free; if she really needed to use the thousands of years old herbs for exchange, it was better to trade them with Zheng He rather than someone else, and judging by his demeanor, he wouldn't mind having more of them.

After agreeing on the plan to attend the auction in three days, the two chatted for a while longer before Zheng He finally got up to leave.

Although he didn't need to personally deal with the matters concerning the Bai family anymore, there was still a lot of work to be done at the city lord's residence. It was impossible for him to be that idle.

Once Zheng He left, Zhang Yiyi sent a message to Shi Feng, asking him to come over when he had time to settle their accounts.

Having asked Zheng He earlier, she learned that Shi Feng had left the city lord's residence and returned home after the Bai family officially collapsed. She figured that Shi Feng was likely still focused on finding a way to treat his brother's illness.

For safety reasons, and for Shi Feng's own good, she couldn't return the Liuyun Mine resources that he had stored with her. However, it was not as if he necessarily needed the Liuyun Mine; other equivalent items would suffice.

Thinking of this, Zhang Yiyi subconsciously began to check her storage ring to see what she could give Shi Feng as a replacement for the Liuyun Mine and to see how much of her own assets she could pull out for the auction in three days.

But as soon as she looked, Zhang Yiyi was taken aback.

Where was the Liuyun Mine? Where had her Liuyun Mine gone?

Where had all the Liuyun Mine resources she had collected gone? Why were they all missing?

Zhang Yiyi's heart raced, and she thought she must have read it wrong. She instinctively flipped through her storage ring a few more times.

But the result was still the same. Just a few days ago, there had seemed to be piles of Liuyun Mine resources stacked like small mountains in her storage ring, but now there was not even a trace left!

Finally, Zhang Yiyi's gaze unconsciously fell on a copper mirror in a corner of the storage ring. It seemed that the mirror had become a bit shinier than before, and in an instant, she felt as if she understood everything.

She took the copper mirror out and held it in her hand, feeling her hands tremble slightly, her heart almost bleeding.

"Did you eat all of it? All that Liuyun Mine went into your belly, didn't it?"

Zhang Yiyi furiously questioned the copper mirror, "How can you eat everything? How can you eat so much? How can you silently devour all the hard-earned resources I mined? Last time, you managed to fend for yourself, even leaving me some broth after eating the meat; why this time, did you feel justified in taking all the fruits of my labor for yourself, not leaving me even a drop of broth?"