Right at the gate of the Xu Family courtyard, in the Great Wilderness Border Village.

The blood left by the White Ape and many demon monkeys during their death had dried, turning a dark purple color...

The air still carried an unsettling scent of blood...

The black bloodstains on the ground, mixed with dust... along with traces of battle, still bore signs of a bloody scene...

The bloodstains needed to be cleaned.

But there wasn’t time yet to clean them.

The entire small courtyard was devoid of people, utterly empty.

In fact, before the White Ape’s rampage, villagers would come to the Xu family’s gate every day, to either flatter Xu Binghu or watch Xu Ran’s cultivation, or to marvel at the extraordinary Peregrine Falcon.

But now...

Everything had changed.

During the White Ape’s chaos, the words spoken by the villagers created a rift in their hearts, making them embarrassed to visit again, feeling shameful...

Therefore.

At this moment.

Xu Ran was sitting cross-legged on a large rock in the backyard, a faint white aura emanated from his body, and golden runes appeared on every visible part of him.

These runes exuded an ancient and mysterious aura.

Light on, light off, light on, light off, light on, light off...

Accompanied by steady breathing, Xu Ran’s body seemed like a flickering sun, even during this bright daylight, still glaring, as if it had taken the sun’s light.

This state lasted for several minutes. A mass of Bai Qi flowed out from his seven orifices, and his gaze became solemn. With a thought from his heart spirit, the golden runes on his body surface directly detached from his body.

Numerous seemingly eternal golden mystical runes danced like elves around Xu Ran, constantly shifting positions, sometimes transforming into words, sometimes turning into runes exuding ancient aura, looking incredibly magical.

"Buzz---buzz---buzz---

And as these golden runes floated in the air, the spiritual qi in this world showed signs of boiling. In an instant, these mystical runes merged entirely, forming a golden vortex, a breath capable of devouring everything spreading out, swallowing all the spiritual qi between the heavens and earth!

"These runes possess such terrifying devouring abilities!!"

Xu Ran eagerly looked at the runes that transformed into a golden vortex, then quickly changed the hand seal, and a childish shout came from his mouth.

"Absorb for me!"

Accompanied by the change in Xu Ran’s hand seal, the originally half-zhang-sized golden vortex quickly expanded, explosively enlarging several times. In the span of a breath, it transformed into an enormous vortex three zhang in size, dispersing slowly above Xu Ran’s head.

Instantly.

The entire spiritual qi of the Great Wilderness Border Village rushed toward this golden vortex, disappearing in just a few breaths.

All of a sudden.

All the villagers of the Great Wilderness Border Village were clueless about what happened, only noticing that the originally rich spiritual qi in the air vanished in an instant.

"What’s going on? My body can’t absorb any spiritual qi at all?"

"I just got back from the Great Mountain, intending to restore spiritual qi, so how did it suddenly vanish?"

...

Someone looked up and noticed the gigantic golden vortex in the direction of the Xu Family.

"Look quickly, there’s a huge golden vortex above the Xu Family."

"I feel like all the spiritual qi is heading toward that golden vortex!"

"How can the Xu Family do this? Not leaving any spiritual qi for us?"

Immediately, everyone looked at the person speaking with a mocking gaze, saying.

"Why don’t you go over to the Xu Family and responsibly question them?"

As soon as these words came out, the speaker’s face turned red immediately.

It was evident that this was the Xu Family’s revenge for their previous actions. If this continued every day, all the spiritual qi would be absorbed by them. Even if they had the Body Refining Manual, without spiritual qi for cultivation, it would be useless.

In the long run, other village’s body refiners might become stronger than they were.

"This won’t do, why don’t we go apologize to the Xu Family?" someone suggested. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Someone proposed, and slowly others also agreed.

"This matter was indeed our fault, we should apologize!"

"The Xu Family is magnanimous, they won’t hold grudges against us!"

"No matter what, Xu Binghu grew up in the Great Wilderness Border Village, and during his wedding with Lian Ji, our villagers helped quite a bit!"

"Yes indeed!"

"Why not have Old Qi go and speak on our behalf about this matter?"

All at once, everyone’s gaze focused on the white-haired old man sitting on the grandmaster chair.

When the White Ape invaded the village, only Old Qi stood up to stop it and refused from beginning to end to hand over Xu Ran. This, Xu Binghu and Lian Ji had seen with their own eyes. If he stepped in, there might be a glimmer of hope.

"Creak!"

Old Qi listened, holding the armrest, slowly standing up.

"Sigh!" He turned to look at everyone, "My reputation isn’t that great!"

....

Inside the Xu Family courtyard.

The golden vortex hovering above Xu Ran’s head devoured all the nearby spiritual qi, emitting a dazzling golden light, illuminating the entire courtyard.

Xu Ran’s body was slowly being lifted into the air by this golden vortex.

Subsequently, a stream of white energy seeped out from the vortex’s center, then slowly flowed down onto Xu Ran’s body below, forming a white sphere that completely enveloped him.

At the same time.

In Xu Ran’s body, there were continuous crackling sounds, like bones shattering. Upon closer inspection, white liquid was seeping from Xu Ran’s bones, flowing throughout his body, and a warmth spread through him for a moment.