Li Ban waited a little longer, then tentatively cast a Terror Spell and followed it up with a Mental Piercing aimed at the furnace.
He felt no feedback to suggest he had struck an enemy.
He jumped down from the cave wall and landed on the edge of the furnace.
The furnace was still warm, but no longer hot enough to burn him.
Li Ban took out the small wooden box he had kept the Plain Ring in. He slipped the Exile Spell Plain Ring onto his finger, then scooped up a bit of the grayish-white solid residue and placed it inside the box.
He had no idea what it was, but Priest Zhu Yao might recognize it.
Throughout this entire process, he never put away the Self-Seeking Mirror in his left hand.
After confirming there was nothing else left in the small cave, he headed back outside.
Yan Feibai had died a heroic "sacrifice," leaving Li Ban as the only one here.
His final 3rd Tier element reached full spiritual rhinoceros!
Yet, the moment all of his 3rd Tier elements maxed out their spiritual rhinoceros, Li Ban felt the barrier restricting his elemental spiritual rhinoceros cap vanish.
His accidental advancement to a 4th Tier Spirit Awakening Priest was only now raising the maximum spiritual rhinoceros capacity for all his elements.
It really is impossible to advance without full spiritual rhinoceros, he thought. Even though I stumbled into a 4th Tier Identity while still at the 3rd Tier, I still have to cultivate my 3rd Tier elements until their spiritual rhinoceros is full before they can advance to the 4th Tier.
What a rigid rule.
A few waste elements were still left. Since no one else was around, Li Ban didn't stand on ceremony and absorbed the rest of them.
He took a lap around the area but found no one else and no other special items. It seemed this place was solely dedicated to processing elements.
Li Ban left the abandoned warehouse straight away.
Two ke later, he caught up to the caravan that had already departed Zhongbei City. He climbed into Priest Zhu Yao's carriage and returned her Self-Seeking Mirror.
"Yan Feibai and whatever was inside the furnace were destroyed by a giant black hand, but I managed to bring back some of the cooled residue."
Li Ban recounted everything he had experienced.
Priest Zhu Yao didn't look surprised. "Just as I suspected. That place was merely an early-stage experimental outpost for Xiao Suo. Aside from that seed, there was nothing of true importance."
"Was that seed very important?" Li Ban asked. He hadn't known a thing about the seed; otherwise, he might have stashed it in his Cubic Space the moment he found it, and perhaps it wouldn't have been destroyed.
"It might not necessarily have been a seed. The various stages of a Mutated Element manifest in different forms. It's also possible you arrived too early, before certain results could even take shape."
Priest Zhu Yao waved a hand, telling him not to take it to heart.
"We intended to destroy it anyway, so it doesn't matter. If you ever need to wipe out a Mutated Element outpost in the future, handle it just as you did today. Slaughter those Black Robe lackeys to the last man and destroy everything. Let those reckless Spirit Practitioners learn exactly what they must never touch."
She lifted the Self-Seeking Mirror Li Ban had just returned and spoke a few words in a low voice to whoever was on the other end.
She made no effort to hide the conversation from Li Ban, and he overheard her ordering the person to thoroughly investigate the Hundred Flowers Pavilion again.
Putting the mirror away, Priest Zhu Yao said, "This time, we managed to snuff out Xiao Suo's scheme before it could even ignite."
"Then again, his continuous actions left flaws. Compared to before, he seems much more impatient. I wonder why?"
Impatience naturally meant he was in a rush to finish something.
But if even Priest Zhu Yao couldn't guess the reason, Li Ban—who knew very little about Xiao Suo—had no chance of figuring it out.
This matter was considered closed for now. The Myriad Ancient Pagoda would naturally dispatch its own people to handle the traitor within the merchant guild.
Returning to his own carriage, he found the Cat Girl still looking down at her copy of the Art of Awakening Life. Shi Ming had already run off to play with the others.
Shi Ming was overly familiar with strangers; he had already struck up a rapport with several of the guards.
Seeing him hanging around Li Ban, the guards assumed Shi Ming was Li Ban's trusted aide. Not daring to refuse him, they all humored him and played along.
Furthermore, most of these guards hailed from wealthy families and had been educated since childhood. With a little deliberate pandering, they found plenty to chat about with Shi Ming.
Consequently, the First Prince's caravan inexplicably gained a group of people who spent all day composing poetry, playing the lute, and painting.
Seeing Shi Ming entertaining himself, Li Ban couldn't be bothered to deal with him.
"It's been a long time since I ran into a mole," Li Ban muttered. The thought brought back memories of his own undercover days two months ago. In this world, there were not only spies from the Laboratory, but moles existed among the major powers as well.
There were surging undercurrents and open clashes between the White Robe and Black Robe factions alike.
Hearing his words, the Cat Girl looked up. "Someone asked you to be a mole?"
Li Ban shook his head with a smile. "I don't want to play the mole ever again."
After bantering for a few sentences, Li Ban grabbed her wrist to treat her internal injuries.
The Cat Girl lowered her head and went back to reading.
A moment later, Li Ban released her. "The harmful Qi inside your body has been completely worn away."
Hearing this, she set down her book, rolled her shoulders, and circulated her spiritual rhinoceros. A smile bloomed on her face.
"You didn't just heal my internal injuries, you even cured some of my old, lingering ailments. I think you could become a doctor in the future."
Li Ban chuckled. "Ordinary folks wouldn't be able to afford my consultation fees, and those who can might not even need my treatment."
Still, the Flesh on White Bones element was incredibly practical.
He had nearly been roasted alive earlier, yet it had healed him in no time.
In future battles, as long as he wasn't injured to the point of imminent death, he could easily recover from full-body wounds.
He would still have to watch out for attacks like the one the Cat Girl had suffered, which caused continuous damage.
After closing his eyes and cultivating for a while, Li Ban shifted his consciousness to the Shadow World.
He hadn't visited the Shadow World in several days; they should be nearing the Northern Base over there by now.
The moment he opened his eyes again, the sounds of battle echoed all around him.
Nana stood behind him, one hand resting on the armrest of his recliner, the other gripping a gun as she vigilantly guarded his flanks.
Li Ban also heard the familiar barking of Mechanical Dogs.
He sat up to assess the situation and discovered the group was once again under siege by Mechanical Dogs.
Captain Luca was fighting three Mechanical Dogs single-handedly.
The Mechanical Dogs' sharp teeth had shredded the clothes on Luca's body, leaving deep scratches across his mechanical chassis.
Some of the gashes had already breached the outer steel plating, causing mechanical fluid to leak out.
The others were locked in combat as well. A few injured members had been dragged back to the center of the formation.
Priest Zhong Ye was also staring intently at the battlefield.
His physical condition was steadily deteriorating. Every time he replenished his spiritual rhinoceros, he only accelerated the countdown of his lifespan, so he absolutely refused to cast spells unless it was a last resort.
Suddenly, one of the Mechanical Dogs abandoned its current opponent. Risking a shot to the back, it lunged straight at Ah She, who was already fending off two other Mechanical Dogs.
Ah She was dual-wielding handguns, firing precision shots one after another. Hearing her companion's warning, she caught sight of the third Mechanical Dog pouncing toward her in her peripheral vision.
Unable to dodge in time, she simply raised her mechanical right arm to block the beast.
The Mechanical Dog sank its jaws ruthlessly into her arm, sending a shower of sparks into the air.
Although Ah She wasn't flesh-and-blood injured, her right arm was pinned. The Mechanical Dog she had been suppressing with her right gun seized the opportunity and charged her.
Throwing ammo conservation to the wind, she began spraying suppressing fire with her left gun.
But at that exact moment, another Mechanical Dog erupted from the ground behind her, its massive jaws snapping open as it lunged for the back of her neck.
It turned out the initial three Mechanical Dogs had been a coordinated feint, attacking solely to make her ignore the threat from behind!
By the time the others tried to shout a warning, it was already too late.
The Alliance team was about to suffer its first casualty right before their eyes.
Suddenly, a figure materialized behind Ah She, seizing the Mechanical Dog by the lower jaw.
The instant they made contact, the Mechanical Dog's blue eyes flickered to crimson.
However, Li Ban's body in this world lacked tremendous physical strength; the Mechanical Dog's sheer momentum bowled him over.
Fortunately, Li Ban fired off an Overwrite Command just in time. The moment the Mechanical Dog hit the ground, it rolled back onto its feet and immediately attacked the other Mechanical Dogs.
Ah She's crisis was resolved in an instant.
She glanced back to see that Priest Ban was her savior. Filled with a mix of excitement and anxiety, she hurriedly used her free arm to haul him up.
Seeing Li Ban awake, the others erupted into cheers.
Based on their previous experience, all of these Mechanical Dogs were going to be ripped apart and scrapped by the one Priest Ban controlled.
Li Ban thought so too.
However, the Mechanical Dog he was controlling had barely bitten a second Mechanical Dog and turned its eyes red when it suddenly collapsed to the ground, utterly paralyzed.
Li Ban blanked for a second, but he had no time to investigate. He used Shrinking Ground to an Inch to teleport behind the second Mechanical Dog that was attacking the others, grabbing its antenna-like tail.
He swiftly took control of this new Mechanical Dog and used the Overwrite Command to direct it against its pack.
Yet, the same bizarre scene played out again.
The second controlled Mechanical Dog rushed over, destroyed a single enemy Mechanical Dog, and then went limp on the ground, just like the first one.
Thankfully, by destroying five Mechanical Dogs in such a short span, Li Ban had massively relieved the pressure on the rest of the team, pulling everyone back from the brink of danger.
So, Li Ban tested his Overwrite Command ability for a third time.
The third controlled Mechanical Dog also managed to scrap only one enemy before collapsing into a useless heap.
By then, the remaining spiritual rhinoceros within his Virus element had been completely drained.
Seeing this, Li Ban simply drew his Iron-Eating Sword and waded into melee combat with the Mechanical Dogs.
Every time the Iron-Eating Sword struck a Mechanical Dog, it drained the metallic components right off its body.
And in Trash City, the one thing they never lacked was scrap metal, meaning low-end combat units like the Mechanical Dogs were composed almost entirely of metal.
To onlookers, it seemed as though every swing of Li Ban's sword instantly shattered the leaping Mechanical Dogs into a rain of fragmented parts.
By the time Li Ban smashed his fifth Mechanical Dog, the skirmish had finally drawn to a close.
He stood panting in exhaustion, gripping his sword with both hands.
While his mental state was fine, this body was sorely lacking in physical conditioning.
His arms and legs ached so badly he could barely keep the Iron-Eating Sword raised.
"Priest Ban." Seeing his state, Nana rushed over and supported him with one arm.
Truth be told, Nana had more muscle on her arm than Li Ban currently had on his entire body.
Li Ban had eliminated twelve Mechanical Dogs on his own, accounting for half of the total enemies slain.
Nana helped him slowly walk back to his recliner to rest while the others began sweeping the battlefield.
Even so, they would occasionally glance over at him with smiles on their faces, as if the mere sight of Li Ban brought them boundless hope.