Xu Ping looked up and instantly recognized the owner of the rushing Escape Light. It was Zhou Tianle, whom he hadn't seen for several months.

At that moment, Xu Ping stood up and moved to an open area of Thousand Leaves Mountain.

He quickly formed seals with his hands, chanting under his breath to control the mountain's array.

Before long, the array's lights flickered, slowly opening a path through the formation.

Zhou Tianle maneuvered his Escape Light through the array path with ease, landing steadily on Thousand Leaves Mountain.

"Fellow Daoist Xu." Zhou Tianle smiled and cupped his hands in greeting.

Seeing Zhou Tianle before him, Xu Ping was slightly startled, his pupils involuntarily contracting.

However, he showed no sign of this on his face, instead, he enthusiastically said:

"Fellow Daoist Zhou, your journey must have been tiring. Why don't we move to the pavilion and chat at leisure?"

Zhou Tianle naturally had no objections.

Thus, under Xu Ping's guidance, the two of them went to the pavilion.

Inside the pavilion, the fragrance of Spirit Tea lingered.

After pouring a cup of Spirit Tea for Zhou Tianle, Xu Ping smiled and asked, "Fellow Daoist Zhou, you mentioned earlier, have you finished collecting the ores?"

"Yes, they are all collected."

Zhou Tianle nodded with a smile, responding as he took out a storage pouch from his magical storage item and handed it to Xu Ping, "The various ores consumed by the Red Flame Golden Beetle are all inside this pouch."

Xu Ping reached out to take the storage pouch and extended his Divine Sense into it.

The storage pouch was packed full, containing all sorts of minerals.

Upon closer inspection, the majority were of the red attribute and earth attribute ores.

"Fellow Daoist Zhou, you've worked hard this time."

Xu Ping nodded with satisfaction, then lightly turned his palm, and the storage pouch filled with minerals instantly disappeared into his Storage Ring.

In fact, he himself had quite a reserve of various minerals.

It's just that the Red Flame Golden Beetles had an astonishing appetite, nearly consuming all of his reserved minerals during this period.

"Such a trivial matter, hardly worth mentioning."

Zhou Tianle took a sip of Spirit Tea, his smile widening.

After all, his family had been specializing in raising various spiritual beasts for generations, and their clan wasn't short of rare spiritual beasts that devour minerals.

Therefore, collecting these minerals was indeed not a difficult task for them.

"For Fellow Daoist Zhou, it is indeed a small matter, but it saves me a lot of effort." Xu Ping smiled slightly.

"If Fellow Daoist Xu needs it in the future, Zhou could collect and deliver the minerals for you." Zhou Tianle half-jokingly said.

"That would be wonderful. I will certainly need a large amount of minerals in the future, so I'll rely on Fellow Daoist Zhou for this favor." Xu Ping smiled faintly.

"That's no problem at all!"

Hearing this, Zhou Tianle was overjoyed and agreed without hesitation.

He didn't expect that a joke would come true!

He had been thinking about how to get closer to Xu Ping, and here it was, presented on a silver platter.

"In that case, I must trouble Fellow Daoist Zhou." Xu Ping cupped his hands.

"Not at all, not at all." Zhou Tianle quickly returned the gesture.

Helping out a tier-three Talisman Master, who wouldn't look up to him and his family in the future?

What hardship is there to speak of?

If other Foundation Establishment cultivators knew about this, they'd surely be green with envy.

...

...

After chatting for a few more moments, Zhou Tianle proposed to take his leave.

Lately, two Foundation Establishment seeds within their family were preparing to take Foundation Establishment Pills to breakthrough the Foundation Establishment stage.

He definitely had to go back to protect them, not stay outside for long.

"Take care, Fellow Daoist Zhou."

Xu Ping did not insist on him staying, directly seeing Zhou Tianle out of the pavilion.

Zhou Tianle returned the courtesy before flying away from Thousand Leaves Mountain on his Escape Light.

Watching Zhou Tianle's silhouette gradually fade into the distance, Xu Ping's expression turned grim.

It wasn't an issue with Zhou Tianle himself.

Rather, from the moment Zhou Tianle arrived, Xu Ping had keenly discovered that someone had quietly set an exceedingly subtle tracking mark on Zhou Tianle.

This tracking mark was so well-hidden that not to mention ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators, even average Fake Pill cultivators would have difficulty detecting it.

Xu Ping roughly judged that the person who deployed this marking secret technique should be an Early Stage Golden Core cultivator.

After all, if it were a Middle Stage Golden Core cultivator, even with his Divine Sense, he probably wouldn't have detected it.

"Hmph, it seems those Golden Core cultivators plotting against me can no longer hold back!"

A cold smirk appeared on Xu Ping's lips, with a glint of chill in his eyes.

Zhou Tianle, a mere Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, obviously wasn't worth a Golden Core cultivator planting a tracking mark on him secretly.

If they had the time for that, a Golden Core cultivator would have eliminated Zhou Tianle several times over.

Clearly, this Golden Core cultivator was targeting him.

It seems this person must have noticed that Xu Ping hadn't ventured out for a long time, thus planning to use other means.

"Let's see who really becomes the oriole in the end." A bone-chilling killing intent flashed in Xu Ping's eyes.

His swordsmanship had broken through, and he had unintentionally mastered Sword Flight.

Today, he intended to let the plotting Golden Core cultivator meet their end!

...

...

After leaving Thousand Leaves Mountain, Zhou Tianle flew rapidly towards his family territory.

As he flew over a tranquil lake, the serene surface suddenly started to ripple with strange waves.

Poof!

A terrifying black mist, as dark as ink, surged into the sky, carrying dreadful power as it hurtled toward Zhou Tianle.

"No!!"

Zhou Tianle immediately felt the imminent deadly threat, his face instantly filled with terror.

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