"Captain Chen, are you not crossing the river?" Mei Qingta looked at Chen Guan and said coldly.

"I will cross the river." Chen Guan no longer hesitated and walked towards the stream, intending to use the Pure Yang Sword Immortal Secret Skill to cross, not willing to gamble on his Extreme Yin Constitution.

However, as Chen Guan approached the stream, he felt the Blood Lingzhi on his chest automatically emitting Primordial Energy, flowing into his body.

Chen Guan was immediately delighted because he discovered that the Blood Lingzhi was emitting Primordial Energy because it had absorbed energy from the outside world.

"The Blood Lingzhi can absorb the Yin Energy in the stream." The closer Chen Guan got to the stream, the more Primordial Energy the Blood Lingzhi emitted, filling his body with a warm stream, making him feel very comfortable.

With a thought, Chen Guan decided not to use the Pure Yang Sword Immortal Secret Skill. He reached the spot where Bai Yueguang and Zhu Hongzhi had crossed, mimicking their actions, and jumped directly, intending to leap over the river.

Plop!

Just as Chen Guan leaped above the stream, he suddenly fell, dropping into the water, his body carried by the current towards the cave in the mountain wall.

Everyone was shocked, and both Zhu Hongzhi and Bai Yueguang rushed towards the stream's edge.

Without hesitation, Zhu Hongzhi leaped down, relying on the Sun True Understanding and Hundred Refinement Vajra Divine Body, forcefully reaching Chen Guan in the water, grabbing his collar, and pulling him to the shore.

Seeing Chen Guan coughing up a few mouthfuls of water on the shore, with no apparent issues, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Captain Zhu, thank you. I just slipped; it's nothing serious." Chen Guan sincerely thanked Zhu Hongzhi, recognizing the rarity of someone saving another in such circumstances.

However, he didn't deliberately fall into the water to test Zhu Hongzhi and the others; instead, he had been observing Mei Qingta's expression.

People often reveal their true intentions only when their goals are achieved.

In the instant he fell into the water, Chen Guan was certain that Mei Qingta indeed intended to kill him; the fleeting expression in Mei Qingta's eyes didn't lie.

Mei Qingta's expression had returned to its usual indifference. He also leaped across the river and reached the other side, leaving it unclear whether he used Pure Yang or Pure Yin Secret Technique.

"Since it's all right, let's go." Mei Qingta called the three to continue inward.

"Captain Chen... be careful on the road..." Jiang Tianqing seemed to have noticed something and shouted to Chen Guan from behind.

Chen Guan waved his hand without saying anything, but he understood what Jiang Tianqing truly meant.

The little horse that had been drinking water at the stream slowly followed up.

However, it didn't come close; it just followed them from afar. When Chen Guan and the others walked, the little horse walked; when they stopped, so did the little horse.

"Ignore it," Mei Qingta said after pondering for a moment.

The four continued walking, with the little horse always following, neither too close nor too far, as if it were monitoring them.

More and more stone Lingzhi appeared in the valley, and almost no stone Lingzhi less than a thousand years old could be seen, with massive black stone Lingzhi as large as millstones everywhere.

Avoiding the areas with stone Lingzhi, they walked for an unknown amount of time before suddenly discovering that the valley ahead had narrowed, with the distance between the mountain walls reduced to only three or four meters.

A gigantic black and red Lingzhi stood like a stone pavilion between the walls, and to proceed further, they had to pass underneath that monstrous black and red Lingzhi.

When Bai Yueguang and Zhu Hongzhi saw the colossal Lingzhi, their eyes widened; they'd never even heard of such a massive stone Lingzhi.

How many tens of thousands of years must it have grown to become so enormous?

"Captain Zhu, you have the Body Protection Secret Skill, you go first," Mei Qingta said lightly.

Zhu Hongzhi was about to move but was stopped by Chen Guan grabbing his arm.

"No need to go further; we'll stay here," Chen Guan addressed Mei Qingta.

"What do you mean by this, Captain Chen? Do you intend to defy my military orders?" Mei Qingta maintained his expressionless demeanor.

"You're not here for exploration. There are no other people here. If you want to kill me, do it here. We don't need to go further. You don't need to use this place to kill me; do it yourself if you want to kill me," Chen Guan said.

"So, the fall into the water was deliberate. Captain Chen is truly insightful," Mei Qingta did not deny it.

"You probably didn't expect me to actually cross the stream, did you?" Chen Guan continued without waiting for his answer, "Who sent you to kill me?"

Mei Qingta calmly said, "I've come to take your life, naturally under orders from above."

After speaking, he said to Bai Yueguang and Zhu Hongzhi, "Kill Chen Guan together, and afterward, I'll ensure you each return to where you came from: Captain Bai goes back to the Personal Guard, and Captain Zhu can rebuild the Black Tiger Corps."

"Do you take us for children? If there were truly orders from above, you would have killed Chen Guan directly; why go through so much trouble? I fear that after Chen Guan is dead, you will kill us to silence us," Zhu Hongzhi said coldly.

Bai Yueguang remained completely unmoved, continuing to stand on Chen Guan's side.

Mei Qingta, while unbuttoning his uniform, sighed, "I originally wanted to do it cleanly, not wanting to dirty my own hands. Since you are so unaware, I'll have to put in some extra effort."

He took off his shirt, folded it neatly on a nearby rock, placed his hat properly on the uniform, and then turned to face Chen Guan and the other two.

"Come at me together, don't waste time," Mei Qingta stood there, looking at Chen Guan and his group as if they were fish on a cutting board.

Chen Guan and the other two exchanged glances, slowly surrounding Mei Qingta.

The combat power Mei Qingta had previously displayed made them fully alert, without the slightest negligence.

While they hadn't fought side by side before, each was extremely skilled, and in an instant, they seemed to find a rapport, simultaneously summoning their Spirit Pets from different directions to surround and attack Mei Qingta.

Zhu Hongzhi summoned a black tiger, the signature Secret Spirit Pet of the Black Tiger Corps, named for this very black tiger Secret Spirit.

The black tiger Secret Spirit is a World-Defying Secret Spirit, originating from Tiger Mountain, where the tiger Secret Spirits ranged from rare to world-defying, with only one world-defying: the Tiger King of Tiger Mountain.

After the Black Tiger King is killed, a new one is born every few months.

Since its inception, the Black Tiger Corps has guarded Tiger Mountain all these years and obtained numerous world-defying black tiger pets. Only select core leaders were granted a black tiger pet.

Zhu Hongzhi remarkably summoned four black tigers at once, astonishing even Bai Yueguang and Chen Guan.

They didn't know that Zhu Hongzhi had four black tigers, not because he owned four but because during the battle of the Secret Spirit Tide, some comrades, before they died, entrusted their black tigers to Zhu Hongzhi.

By then, most pets capable of dying had perished. Those black tigers were severely injured and lost battle capability, only retrieved by their surviving comrades. Before dying, they would entrust their severely injured black tigers to surviving comrades, one after another, until several passed their lifelong companions to Zhu Hongzhi.

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