It seemed these formations weren't all guarded against in the same direction.

Shen Yi had recognized the accumulated faith; clearly, that was something usable.

Lady Qinghua had barred Xiang Tianyan a moment ago and hadn't yet been withdrawn. She glanced sidelong at Shen Yi. "Shall Qinghua go and give it a try?"

Shen Yi mused a moment, then still declined her offer. Usable as accumulated faith was, he hadn't much confidence in whether a divine spirit could withstand those waves of fire; at most he'd hold it as a last resort. And what was more, there were other options now.

At the thought, Shen Yi looked over at the little scholar in the distance. Everyone else bore burn-marks to some degree, but this one alone — his snow-white scholar's robe was spotless, let alone any injury.

"Go on," he said with a nod.

"Eh?" The scholar startled back half a step, pointing at himself with a pained look on his fair little face. "Me?"

They'd only just been eating fruit together — how had it turned so heartless in the blink of an eye?

The others were badly frightened too. This young man had just dealt with two Mixed Origin Grandmasters without so much as lifting an eyelid — never mind a school of small fry like themselves.

"I'm telling you to break the formation." Shen Yi shot him a look.

"Oh."

The scholar patted his chest and hurriedly fished out another thick tome, crouching at the bank to investigate while flipping through the volume.

Learning on the spot and selling it right back?

Shen Yi withdrew his gaze, at a loss for words. Never mind — he'd come to look for a spiritual root to begin with, and this medicine hut looked very much like a place for growing heaven-and-earth treasures. A little waiting did no harm.

He hadn't the Xiang siblings' worries. The reason was simple. A spiritual root was a thing needed at the Mixed Origin realm, and within the Mixed Origin realm, he ought to count as a figure of no small strength. Should a Spirit-Transformation…