By this time, Li Ban had already dived into the subterranean river channel.
When the descending Sun-Obscuring iron cage trapped him, he was surprised to find that despite the immense pressure, the spiritual rhinoceros in his body was not completely locked down as it had been in the Death Prison.
This was because the Silver Kingfisher, still hidden in his palm and not yet put away, had not reverted to a lifeless object under the suppression of the Sun-Obscuring Spirit Iron.
He could even drive it to fly out of the iron cage.
Li Ban then tested his other abilities. He discovered that while his element abilities were suppressed, they were not entirely disabled; he could still use about thirty percent of his original strength.
Whenever he channeled his spiritual rhinoceros and used his element abilities, a faint, churning mist rolled within him. It simultaneously helped him resist the pressure from the Sun-Obscuring Spirit Iron and supplied him with the spiritual rhinoceros he needed to drive his abilities.
In other words, the spiritual rhinoceros he was currently using to drive his abilities did not come from the elements themselves, but from that cluster of mist.
This cluster of mist had been born after Li Ban became a 4th Tier Priest.
Li Ban had not had time to study it before, but now he knew that this mist could also store spiritual rhinoceros, and its inherent rank was clearly higher than that of an ordinary element.
Having confirmed this, Li Ban immediately feigned drowning while using Sea Bream Gills to breathe underwater and preserve his stamina.
Once the pavilion master of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion and the others left the cave, Li Ban immediately had the Silver Kingfisher pick up a small piece of glowing stone in its beak.
The Silver Kingfisher returned underwater. First, from the outside, it cast the iron cage's shadow into the interior. Li Ban instantly merged into the shadow, then had the Silver Kingfisher shift directions to project the shadow outside the cage.
Through this shadow transfer, Li Ban slipped free of the cage's restraints.
He was not worried that Yan Jiu would cry out and expose his actions if she noticed.
For the current Yan Jiu, Li Ban's escape was actually a variable.
That was far better than helplessly waiting to die in the iron cage.
However, Yan Jiu was so shaken by the news she had heard from the old pavilion master that she did not notice Li Ban's movements until he was already out of the cage.
Once Li Ban was free, the spiritual rhinoceros in his entire body returned to normal. He and the Silver Kingfisher immediately began searching for the subterranean river channel.
As for saving Yan Jiu?
Out of the question.
She had snatched the silver needle Lady Kui threw to him. Li Ban did not have time to settle the score right now, otherwise he would have slapped ten more locks onto Yan Jiu's cage.
Through the fluctuations in the water current, Li Ban quickly located the exit of the subterranean waterway. Without any hesitation, he dove right in.
The subterranean waterway was not a sprawling labyrinth branching in all directions, but the current was relentlessly fierce. The channel itself was also quite wide.
Perhaps the Hundred Flowers Pavilion had specifically chosen to build over this location.
Li Ban swam along the winding waterway for a while. When he ran out of strength, he simply relied on the current to rest for a bit before pushing forward again.
He calculated the time.
For the Cat Girl to reach Hundred Flowers City, assassinate the city lord, and return, it would take at least until tomorrow morning.
He needed to run out before dawn and wait for the Cat Girl outside the Hundred Flowers Pavilion to stop her from returning.
Of course, Li Ban also wanted to catch up to the Cat Girl and stop her from assassinating the city lord, letting these two factions fight amongst themselves.
Unfortunately, he was very clear on the Cat Girl's stealth abilities. Even if he found the city lord, he would not be able to find her.
Just then, Li Ban saw the faint shadow of vines up ahead with his right eye.
He recalled Lady Hua mentioning earlier that "the pavilion master frequently takes the waterways." He suspected the vines in front of him might be the pavilion master's eyes and ears.
He wanted to detour, but in a waterway like this, there was simply nowhere to detour and nowhere to hide.
Left with no other choice, Li Ban activated the Invisibility Plain Ring, which only had one use left.
He swam carefully through the water, navigating around every single vine.
Gradually, light appeared ahead.
Except it was still night; it could not possibly be sunlight.
'So I might have entered another cave?'
Li Ban moved even more cautiously, avoiding drawing attention to any anomalies in the water current.
At the same time, he looked above the surface to see where he had ended up this time.
However, with a single glance, he unexpectedly spotted two familiar faces.
Lady Hua, along with a massive, tangled cluster of vines.
And right in the middle of that mass of vines was an incredibly ancient person, so old that it was impossible to even distinguish their gender.
Yet looking at his facial features, there was a clear resemblance to the vine-woven human face from earlier.
Li Ban concluded that this had to be the old pavilion master.
It was unknown what had happened to the pavilion master of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion. The vines were not just wrapped around him; the tips of many vines were actually inserted into his body.
It looked as though the vines were absorbing his flesh and blood.
Or perhaps he was using his own flesh and blood to nourish that enormous mass of vines.
Li Ban found it somewhat unbelievable that the Hundred Flowers Pavilion Master, possessing such powerful vine elements, was merely a 5th Tier Spirit Cultivator.
He reached out, grabbed a protruding rock at the bottom of the water, and stayed in place.
For these two to move from one hidden cave to another, they were likely conspiring about other matters.
The sound of the rushing water was somewhat loud, so Li Ban clung to the rock and got as close as he could.
Fortunately, he was in a state of Invisibility, making it difficult for the two on the shore to detect him.
"...Looking at his condition, I really should not have handed Miaomiao over to Lady Kui back then."
The pavilion master's voice was even hoarser and rougher than the voice produced by the vines.
Lady Hua's despondent voice drifted over. "I secretly fed Miaomiao meat, and as a result, he grew black mold all over his body. Lady Kui had no other choice but to let Miaomiao sever his limbs and regenerate."
"The child of a tree-folk, how can he not even devour flesh and blood?"
"Miaomiao is more like an ordinary plant. Injecting flesh and blood directly into him would burn him to death."
"So he is still just a foolish little child right now. If you want to change your fate, how can you do it without defying the heavens?"
The two of them kept discussing Miaomiao. Li Ban felt this information was useless to him and prepared to leave.
But right then, they brought up the Cat Girl again.
This made Li Ban stop in his tracks once more.
"...The Cat Girl might not succeed in assassinating Wang Yong," the pavilion master said. "But it will not be easy for Wang Yong to stop her, either. The beast blood in her body is rare. When she returns, use that man's name to lure her over."
Lady Hua had no choice but to agree.
The old pavilion master spoke in a haunting tone. "With the Lord Priest's methods, once I devour the 5th Tier Cat Girl, and then devour the 6th Tier Yan Jiu, it should be just about enough."
Lady Hua finally could not hold back her question. "You first turned yourself into a plant, and now you want to devour beast blood. Are these all secret arts handed down to you by the Lord Priest?"
Silence hung in the air for a moment.
"Yes, Lady Hua. This is the second life the Lord Priest has given me."
"You... you turned yourself into this state, and this is a second life?"
Li Ban also felt that the old pavilion master's appearance was no longer that of a normal person.
What Lady Hua probably wanted to say was, 'You turned yourself into this ghostly monstrosity.'
The old pavilion master sighed deeply, causing even the vines in the water to sway.
Li Ban quickly shrank further underwater to avoid being touched by the vines.
"Lady Hua, look at my face. My lifespan is nearing its end. I am going to die!"
"When I was young, I always felt I had plenty of time, so I always distracted myself with matters outside of cultivation. I figured the spiritual rhinoceros could enhance my constitution, and that reaching the 5th Tier would give me nearly a hundred more years of life than an ordinary person. But... but I unexpectedly ended up trapped at the 5th Tier for a hundred years!"
"I was blessed with peerless talent, and successfully inherited the superior element of the previous pavilion master. How can I just die like this?"
Lady Hua stared in stunned silence.
She was only in her forties this year. For a Spirit Practitioner, she was in her prime, making it impossible for her to comprehend the old pavilion master's situation.
To her, Spirit Practitioners were not Wizards. Dying when one's natural lifespan ran out was simply a normal occurrence, was it not?
No matter how much of a genius the pavilion master was, could he really match the genius of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion's original founder?
However, the old pavilion master could still use his vine element to thrash her. So no matter how shocked Lady Hua was, she only thought it in her heart, not daring to voice a single word.
Though Lady Hua did not say anything, the old pavilion master read her expression and knew no one could understand his situation.
Without identical experiences, how could anyone truly empathize?
He abruptly stopped venting his emotions and resumed speaking in an icy tone. "Leave Miaomiao by my side. Once I have finished absorbing the beast blood of the Cat Girl and Yan Jiu, I will grind their corpses into a paste for Miaomiao to absorb."
Lady Hua's gaze flickered. Asking on behalf of her longtime friend, Lady Kui, she said, "Pavilion Master, if you have Miaomiao absorb the flesh and blood of mid-tier Spirit Practitioners... will that not completely shatter his sanity?"
The whole reason Lady Kui had consistently refused to feed Miaomiao flesh and blood was to preserve Miaomiao's pure, innocent nature.
The pavilion master fell silent again for a moment. Just as Li Ban was growing impatient, he finally spoke.
"I suppose it is fine to tell you now. I will be needing your help later anyway."
"I am going to use Miaomiao's body to be reborn."
Lady Hua drew in a long breath.
Her shocked gasp was so loud that Li Ban heard it clearly from underwater.
'This old pavilion master actually wants to possess a body to be reborn?' He was not quite as surprised. 'The Ring World had similar consciousness-uploading technology. It's just that the world was destroyed too quickly; I was forced back to the Wizard World before I could even figure out what branch of technology it belonged to.'
'However, entering the Wizard World requires passing through the cerebral platform constructed by the General. Looking at it that way, rather than a technological achievement of the Ring World, doesn't it seem more like the General's unique ability?'
Li Ban suddenly thought of "Gu Yi's Testament" that he had picked up in the Shadow World. Did that testament contain the secret to how the General allowed multiple consciousnesses to repeatedly enter the Wizard World?
Li Ban's heart suddenly began to pound.
If he could master that ability... could he not become the next Director, having a whole group of people work for him?
However, the freezing subterranean water quickly jolted Li Ban back to reality.
'It definitely will not be that simple. But I should still find a way to investigate the contents of the testament. The General also had Wizard Embryo Fragments. Maybe the testament holds some useful content.'
While Li Ban was in thought, Lady Hua pleaded for Miaomiao.
She hoped the pavilion master would choose a different person. Not only did Lady Kui treat Miaomiao like her own child, but both she and Lady Rui also liked the little tree-folk child who acted like a two- or three-year-old toddler.
But the old pavilion master merely replied, "I am doing this for the Hundred Flowers Pavilion as well. If I die, are you confident you can inherit the Dragon Scale Vine?"
Lady Hua had no answer to that.
Right at that moment, the old pavilion master erupted into a fit of violent gasping. His true body, hidden behind the massive vines, also began to convulse.
He looked to be in excruciating pain, as if he could not catch his breath.
"Pavilion Master!" Lady Hua cried out in a panic. "How are you? Shall I feed you algae sprouts?"
"No," the pavilion master refused. He slowly recovered his breath, and although the panting stopped, his voice grew even weaker. "Consuming algae sprouts will affect the absorption of the beast blood. I can still hold on for a few more days. Go keep an eye on the outside. If there is no way to lure the Cat Girl over, bring Yan Jiu here. I will drain her blood first."
Clearly, the deterioration of his physical condition had forced the old pavilion master to lower his requirements slightly.
"Understood, Pavilion Master. If you need anything, notify me through the vines. I will rush here as fast as I can," Lady Hua said solemnly, as if nothing in the world was more important than the pavilion master's affairs.
"I know you are loyal. Go."
Now, only the old pavilion master was left.
Eavesdropping from underwater, Li Ban let half of his face breach the surface to confirm.
The old pavilion master's true body was incredibly frail—
He decided not to leave.
Li Ban tightened his grip on the Iron-Eating Sword in his hand.