To everyone on the outside, the passage of time left them more and more nervous. Inside the pit, Bai Xiaochun's eyes were shining, and his eyebrows were dancing with happiness.
He was now almost out of Soul Convergence Pills. It had taken a whole day to go through several thousand of them, which meant that he had already collected tens of millions of souls.
Whenever he scanned the thousands of soul spheres in his bag of holding, he could almost see all of the battle credit coming his way, and couldn't help but muse on how amazing he was.
"I absolutely have to become a major general!!" he declared loudly, eyes shining with excitement. After using his last few Soul Convergence Pills, he patted his bag of holding a bit begrudgingly.
"If I had known this was going to happen, I would have come prepared!" There were still so many vengeful souls in the area that they were almost impossible to count. It made him feel like he had encountered an iceberg made of gold, but had only been able to see the tip of it.
The feeling of not wanting to leave caused him to heave numerous sighs.
"Well, there's nothing I can do," he thought with gritted teeth and bloodshot eyes. "For the sake of the safety of my brothers on the outside, I should probably get back. Then I can concoct some more Soul Convergence Pills and come back later!" There were definitely more than enough vengeful souls here to propel him to the rank of major general. The feeling of having that promotion just within arm's reach was exciting, and the mere thought of how different his life would be as a major general got his heart racing. Finally, he turned and headed out of the pit.
As soon as he flew out into the open, the cultivators of his regiment bristled with excitement as they awaited his orders. As for the old soul cultivator, he was trembling physically because of the waves of shock battering his heart.
Clearly, Bai Xiaochun wasn't injured at all. His eyes were bloodshot and he seemed tired, but in very high spirits. All of that only served to convince the old man that his previous suppositions were correct.
"He's definitely a deva...." the old man thought, seemingly on the verge of tears. As far as he could tell, nobody but a deva could possibly survive in that terrifying pit for a day without being hurt.
"Why the hell is a deva picking on me like this...?" he thought, staring at Bai Xiaochun with despair.
Everyone watched as Bai Xiaochun set up a rudimentary spell formation over the entrance of the pit, then flew over, swished his sleeve, and said, "Let's get back to the Great Wall!"
The cultivators in the regiment breathed sighs of relief.
Although these were all crack troops under the leadership of a famous officer, they had been away from the Great Wall for quite some time. Plus, the area they were in seemed far too quiet. Although they could tell that there were natural restrictive spells in the area that were likely the reason that no one had sensed the strange phenomena, they also knew that the longer they stayed in one place, the more danger they would be in.
If any of the powerful groups in the Wildlands showed up, they would definitely end up facing a major crisis.
Therefore, as soon as the orders left Bai Xiaochun's lips, they scattered and began to make their own way back to the Great Wall.
As for Bai Xiaochun, he began to retrace his own route back. After proceeding for a bit, he looked back in the direction of the pit, and saw what appeared to be nothing more than a mountain range of countless overlapping shadows. There weren't even any sounds coming from the area.
Considering it was currently late at night, the countless shadows looked very foreboding.
"Are the restrictive spells in there really natural?" Bai Xiaochun thought. Recalling the image of the huge crocodile skeleton, he quietly turned and proceeded back toward the Great Wall.
On his initial trip leaving the wall, he had proceeded with caution as he made his way along. Although he was still cautious on the way back, he was in a much different mood. Furthermore, the trip back went very smoothly. Although he ran into a few small groups of vengeful souls, none of them slowed him down, and within a few hours, he was within sight of the Great Wall.
It was now just before dawn on his third day outside. Although the lands were bathed in darkness, the spell formation shield on the wall made it seem like a huge dragon hulking there, radiating shocking energy that would astonish anyone who laid eyes on it.
Of course, Bai Xiaochun and his regiment were used to the sight of the Great Wall, but not the old soul cultivator. He began to tremble even harder than before. And yet there was nothing he could do as the cultivators of the regiment produced their identity medallions and entered the Great Wall through one of the small entrances.
Even till this point, the old man had no idea who Bai Xiaochun really was. After entering Great Wall City, the cultivators sent him to the prisoner of war camp, where he would be handed over to the interrogators for questioning.
As for the thousand men in his regiment, Bai Xiaochun didn't treat them stingily. As soon as they regrouped, he rewarded each of them with a soul sphere.
Although the 10,000 souls they were each being given wasn't necessarily a huge amount, considering that Bai Xiaochun had only collected only a few tens of millions of souls in total, it still counted as a lot. It was an amount that not even Bai Lin or the other generals would hand out as a reward.
"Brothers, stick with me, and you'll always have alcohol to drink and meat to eat. Whenever good things happen to me, I won't ever forget about you!" Not only did the eyes of the men shine brightly, they needed no reminder from Bai Xiaochun to understand that the matters which had occurred on the outside needed to be kept under tight wraps.
Bai Xiaochun didn't waste any time. After handing out the rewards to the regiment, he didn't rest, but instead, excitedly went to his residence to work on concocting medicine. His main goal, of course, was to produce as many Soul Convergence Pill as he could in a short time.
As for the soulhorn mission, he had Zhao Long and some of the others go hand it in. Not long after they did, Bai Xiaochun's identity medallion vibrated and emitted bright red light as 1,000,000 battle credits were added to it.
Another three days passed, during which time Bai Xiaochun didn't rest at all. Eyes bloodshot, he concocted medicine like mad, producing one batch of Soul Convergence Pills after another. Including some others he'd had lying around, he now had more than 5,000, and simply couldn't wait any longer.
"Long delays usually lead to trouble. The longer I wait, the more likely someone is to find that place...." By this point, it seemed more likely than ever that he would be able to get a promotion to major general. Therefore, he gritted his teeth and threw caution to the wind. When night fell, he slipped out of the command center, not telling anyone that he was leaving. By utilizing his Undying Tendons and the Undying Hex divine ability he had gained enlightenment of, he left the city.
After vanishing, he once again felt like his body was about to be ripped apart. A long moment passed, whereupon he reappeared on the battlefield outside of the Great Wall. Then, without any hesitation, he sped off into the night.
Of course, he was already wearing his mask. Based on the soul fluctuations it sent out, along with his murderous aura, it ensured that any savages or soul cultivators who saw him along the way perceived him to be someone no one would provoke.
After drawing upon all the speed he could muster, Bai Xiaochun soon reached those same shadowy mountains that he had left a few days before. Making sure he wasn't being followed, he headed into the mountains.
However, after searching thoroughly, his face fell as he realized that the pit was nowhere to be found!
"This is definitely the spot.... Why isn't it here? Could it be something to do with the restrictive spells?" After looking around a few times, he finally decided to open his third eye. However, not even that revealed any clues.
Most other people would likely have given up at that point. But Bai Xiaochun wasn't so willing to give in. He continued to search here and there, calling upon his Heavenspan Dharma Eye every so often. After several hours had passed, and dawn approached, the countless overlapping shadows that were the mountains suddenly seemed to start folding in on themselves.
"So that's how it is!" Bai Xiaochun thought, his expression brightening.