A strong sense of suffocation gripped Gu Ke's throat as she was lifted by her neck.
"You..." she struggled, slapping Bai Ran's hand. "You dare lay a hand on a fellow disciple?"
"What, a thief steals my things, and I can't discipline them?" Bai Ran tightened her grip.
The pain was immense, a purplish bruise already appearing on Gu Ke's neck.
The other disciples held their breath, not daring to exhale.
"Take the storage bag from her," she instructed Ruan Shuang, who stood nearby.
Ruan Shuang paused for a moment before quickly darting forward and deftly removing the storage bag.
"Bang!" Bai Ran casually tossed Gu Ke away as if she were rubbish, the impact heavy as she hit the ground.
"Cough, cough, cough!" Gu Ke gasped for air.
"I'll report this to Sect Leader Xiong as soon as I get back! He'll teach you a lesson!" she gritted her teeth.
After handing the storage bag to Bai Ran, Ruan Shuang looked at Gu Ke and snapped, "Scram!"
Gu Ke cast a resentful glance at Ruan Shuang before shakily departing from the lake.
Sun Jianning muttered under his breath, "What a disgrace to core disciples."
"Anyone else unhappy with me can leave with her," Bai Ran swept her gaze across the remaining disciples.
"If you choose to stay here, you'll bear all the dangers you encounter yourselves."
Among the crowd, Zeng Rou watched Gu Ke's retreating back. She also wanted to leave, but she didn't want to miss out on the spirit spring water for marrow cleansing...
After a long wait with no one leaving, Ruan Shuang finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Next, we need to figure out how to track down the ten-thousand-year-old python."
Ma Huai chimed in enthusiastically, "Why don't we wait until night? The ten-thousand-year-old python comes out to hunt then, and we can seize the opportunity to kill it."
Sun Jianning pondered, "But what if the python is extremely fast? If it detects us and flees into its lair, it will be difficult to hunt it again."
Ma Huai chuckled mysteriously, "Running away is also a good thing."
"A good thing? Why do you say that?" Ruan Shuang looked at him.
"Because if the python runs into a certain cave, we'll know where it lives!"
"Right!" Sun Jianning's eyes widened in understanding. Even if the python escaped, they would know its hiding place!
"What if the caves are all interconnected?" Ruan Shuang asked, causing both of them to freeze.
They truly hadn't considered that...
If the caves were a labyrinth, they wouldn't only fail to find the python's lair but would also have alerted it.
"Ruan Shuang is right, the caves are connected," Bai Ran said, gazing at the distant cliff face as she retracted her spiritual sense.
"Ah, what should we do then?" Ma Huai lamented, utterly frustrated. Nothing seemed to work. Did they really have to search one by one?
Bai Ran chuckled lightly and, under everyone's watchful eyes, produced a small bottle.
Ma Huai's eyes lit up. Whatever Captain Bai produced was bound to be good!
"This bottle contains a poison pill. If you smash it hard on the ground, it will shatter and release a toxic gas."
Poison... poison pill? Ma Huai was dumbfounded, but Ruan Shuang was overjoyed, instantly understanding Bai Ran's intention.
"If we throw the poison pill into the cave, the cave will fill with toxic gas, forcing the python out!" she said excitedly to Bai Ran.
Bai Ran nodded. "The ten-thousand-year-old python won't be able to escape back into a cave filled with poisonous gas."
The disciples looked delighted. Zeng Rou, however, spoke up, "Captain, we know how to find the python now. Can we go soak in the lake water?"
Ruan Shuang frowned at her. "What are you in such a hurry for? When we soak in the lake is up to Captain Bai."
Bai Ran chuckled. "Let's go."
Zeng Rou's face lit up with joy. Ma Huai, however, asked in confusion, "Aren't we going to kill the python first before soaking in the lake?"
"The ten-thousand-year-old python is a high-level spirit beast. Your chances of victory against it are slim right now. Only after cleansing your marrow and expelling impurities will you have a fighting chance."
Ma Huai nodded, half understanding, half not. In any case, they were soaking in the lake first.
The disciples, filled with excitement, followed Bai Ran's steps.
Soon, the group arrived at the lake.
Bai Ran poured a large bottle of spirit spring water into the lake and turned. "Take off your outer clothes and you can enter the lake."
With a wave of her hand, spiritual energy gathered above the lake, forming a numerical display to keep time.
The disciples eagerly shed their outer garments and rushed into the lake, the icy water making their teeth chatter.
"Hiss—it's so cold!"
"It's really freezing!"
Bai Ran removed her outer clothes and slowly entered the lake.
Once all the disciples were in the water, the spiritual energy timer above began to count.
"Drip, drip..." the numbers slowly ticked by.
As time passed, a scorching heat began to rise from everyone's abdomen.
Ruan Shuang frowned, feeling as though she were caught between ice and fire, intensely hot yet bone-chillingly cold.
Everyone's complexion grew increasingly grim, except for Bai Ran, who remained serene.
Ma Huai glanced up at the timer. Only a little over ten minutes had passed.
"I can't do it anymore..." some disciples couldn't endure it and wanted to get out of the water.
"Hold on a bit longer... The longer you endure, the more impurities you'll expel..."
The disciples gritted their teeth, enduring the onslaught of the spirit spring water.
Time trickled by, and the burning sensation slowly subsided. Just as the disciples wondered if it was over, an intense pain shot through their bodies from their dan tian!
"Ah!" Zeng Rou cried out in agony. Damn it... why did it hurt so much!
Ma Huai's face was deathly pale. So the fading of the burning sensation wasn't the end... it was just the beginning...
Ruan Shuang, Wen Hongyi, Sun Jianning... every disciple bore the excruciating pain, feeling as though time had never crawled so slowly.
"Hold on," Bai Ran opened her eyes and scanned everyone.
Half an hour later, the pain intensified.
"Splash!" A disciple suddenly stood up, his face ashen. "I can't take it anymore..."
He slowly climbed ashore and collapsed on the bank.
"If you don't stay for a full hour, you've suffered this pain for nothing," Bai Ran closed her eyes.
"What!"
"Getting out now means it was all for naught?"
Upon hearing this, the disciples immediately abandoned any thought of leaving the water. The male disciple sat by the shore, utterly despondent.
...
Ruan Shuang's eyes were bloodshot, but she still stood unsteadily. It was almost an hour.
At this moment, many disciples in the lake were in so much pain they were on the verge of unconsciousness, but their tenacious willpower kept them from collapsing.
"Drip, drip..."
"It's been an hour."
A shout rang out. A thick layer of impurities was exuded from everyone's bodies, washed away by the lake water and carried into the distance.
A sense of unparalleled lightness washed over them.