Ye Fan sounded a preemptive note, then placed the bundle on the ground.
Upon seeing the vine roots within, Wang Yang immediately collapsed to his knees.
"Thud!"
"Yu'er, how could you..." Wang Yang touched the vine roots in disbelief, murmuring, "You were fine earlier... It's all my fault, I shouldn't have left you then..."
As he spoke, tears began to flow.
Ziyun Zhenren and the others looked at Ye Fan with complex expressions.
Ziyu was Ye Fan's contracted beast; they had no reason to blame Ye Fan.
They simply couldn't understand why Ziyu had ended up like this.
Since Ye Fan had emerged unharmed, there was no logical reason why he wouldn't have cared for Ziyu's life.
They weren't blaming Ye Fan in their hearts, but rather couldn't fathom the reason.
Could it be that something incredibly terrifying had happened below, so terrifying that Ye Fan couldn't even protect Ziyu?
...
"Junior Brother Wang, don't be too sad."
Ye Fan slowly recounted what had happened below.
A few minutes later.
"Senior Brother Ye, you mean Yu'er is still alive?" Wang Yang carefully took the purple bead, asking excitedly.
"I can only say there's a possibility," Ye Fan said, gently patting his shoulder. "As for whether it will succeed or not, we'll only know after we return to the sect and try."
"That's wonderful, wonderful!" Wang Yang's excitement brought fresh tears to his eyes.
Ziyun Zhenren and the others felt a pang of pity.
They hadn't expected Wang Yang to be so devoted.
They hoped Ziyu would be alright, otherwise, they didn't know how he would cope...
"Don't worry," Li Mingbai comforted him. "With Senior Brother Ye here, everything will be fine!"
Just then, a ball of light flew out from underground.
Ye Fan's heart stirred.
Wasn't this the one he had seen when he first entered?
He recalled Chen Feng had called this a key.
With that thought, Ye Fan reached out and caught the ball of light.
As the light dissipated, a roughly inch-long oval gem appeared in Ye Fan's palm.
The gem was semi-transparent, with gray mist constantly swirling within.
"Good disciple, what is this thing?" Ziyun Zhenren's eyes sparkled. "It looks so beautiful."
Women, like dragons, were very interested in shiny things.
"Chen Feng said earlier that this thing is a key," Ye Fan replied. "As for what it unlocks, he wasn't sure either."
Ye Fan had mentioned Chen Feng and his group when he was recounting the events, so Ziyun Zhenren and the others were familiar with the name.
"So that's how it is..." Ziyun Zhenren said regretfully. "It must contain some great fortune. Keep it well."
Although she was captivated by the beautiful gem, since it could now benefit her beloved disciple, she no longer harbored any covetous thoughts.
"Since there's nothing else here, let's head back first," Ye Fan said, tucking the gem into his ring. "Let's try to save Ziyu."
A few days later.
The Blazing Sun Mountain Range, Ziyun Sect's stronghold.
After choosing a location rich in spiritual energy, Ye Fan cultivated a small spirit field.
Ye Fan first had Ziyun Zhenren grind the vines and roots that had fallen from Ziyu into powder.
He then scoured the Ziyun Sect's treasure vault and retrieved some Shihuasha (Stone Sea Sand).
What he intended to do was to draw a simplified version of the Resurrection Array.
The reason for using Ziyu's materials and Shihuasha was out of necessity.
The materials required for drawing the full Resurrection Array were as high as Tier 11, which were clearly difficult to obtain on this resource-scarce continent.
Furthermore, he currently lacked true qi; even with the materials, he couldn't draw the original Resurrection Array.
Although Shihuasha was only Tier 3, its excellent absorbency effectively compensated for these shortcomings.
Of course, the effect would be significantly inferior.
Conversely, the vine roots greatly increased the chances of success.
One of the materials for the Resurrection Array was something closely related to the target being resurrected.
The best choice, naturally, would be a part of the target's body.
However, this was merely theoretical.
After all, if one were to resurrect someone, one couldn't just cut off an arm or a leg, could they?
Therefore, the usual choice was a cultivator's life-bound magical artifact.
This was because a life-bound magical artifact contained the cultivator's vital blood and spiritual power, thus considered a part of the body.
Otherwise, the backlash wouldn't be so severe when cultivators self-destructed their life-bound magical artifacts.
Although the price was considerable, a magical artifact could be reacquired, but a life, once lost, was gone forever...
After finishing, Ye Fan returned to the spirit field with the items.
Wang Yang and the others had, following his instructions, dug a pit over a meter deep in the spirit field.
Ye Fan, accompanied by his master, jumped into the pit and began their work.
Ye Fan was responsible for drawing the array foundation, while Ziyun Zhenren provided auxiliary support with her true qi.
Although the scale of the drawing was not large, the progress was extremely slow.
Every time Ye Fan completed a formation line, Ziyun Zhenren needed to inspect it.
In the beginning, it was manageable. With few formation lines, the inspection was quick.
However, as the number of formation lines increased, the computational load involved grew exponentially.
To give a simple example, a two-digit combination lock had only a hundred or so possible combinations.
But when it became a ten-digit combination lock...
In addition to these complex calculations, it was also a severe test of Ziyun Zhenren's cultivation.
The entire drawing process required Ziyun Zhenren to provide a stable output of true qi for Ye Fan.
Simply put, it required Ye Fan to hold his master's hand during the process.
This ensured the stability of the drawing and greatly reduced unnecessary waste of true qi.
In the beginning, it was fine.
The consumption of just a few formation lines was negligible for Ziyun Zhenren.
But as the number of formation lines increased, the demand for true qi grew almost exponentially.
The cultivation technique Ye Fan had given Ziyun Zhenren was indeed extraordinary, allowing her to break through from the eighth to the ninth layer of Nascent Soul in just a few days.
In the past, this would have been unthinkable without decades or even centuries.
Furthermore, after cultivating Ye Fan's technique, Ziyun Zhenren found that her dantian had also expanded significantly.
Compared to cultivators of the same level, it had expanded by at least thirty percent!
The terrifying extent was evident!
When two individuals of the same equipment level fight, one side having a third more mana would naturally determine the outcome.
But the problem was, time was still too short...
In less than half a month in total, how much more could she improve?
As the drawing progressed, Ziyun Zhenren clearly felt her body struggling to keep up...
Every half hour, she had to stop to recover her nearly depleted true qi.
Restoring it with pills was not very practical, as the Ziyun Sect didn't have many high-grade Spirit Recovery Pills at the moment.
They had plenty of low-grade ones, but their efficacy was poor.
The Second Elder had a lot of spirit recovery pills, all of them high-grade.
He had offered his medicine to Ziyun Zhenren during this period, but both Ziyun Zhenren and Ye Fan had strongly refused!
Damn it, this was no trifling matter!
Without taking his medicine, at most they would be a bit tired and slower.
But if they took it, there would be another person needing resuscitation...