Just when Zhen Shi began to wonder whether he should risk using <Vermillion Dragonification> and put up a fight, the middle-aged man who seemed to have sensed his disbelief spoke with a grim smile, "To repay your debt all need to do is help me escape from this place. I overheard you saying that you can do so... And don't think that your strange weapon went unnoticed either."

Zhen Shi calmed down, 'So this fellow just wanted to escape this place!' But realizing that his own scam was found out, he began to grow worried as well...

As if he had sensed Zhen Shi's worry, the middle-aged man replied with a relaxed smile, "As interesting as your weapon is, I can see that only you can wield it. So I have no interest in taking it from you. And if you're worried about other cultivators being able to see through your ruse, don't be. Even Sovereigns can only dream of seeing through such superb craftsmanship."

Zhen Shi was speechless, 'If even Sovereigns can't see through it, THEN WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!? A ghost? A devil? An immortal? A god? '

The middle-aged man shrugged in denial and asked inquisitively, "So tell me, how do you plan on escaping from this place?"

Deciding to put his personal worries aside for a moment, Zhen Shi replied after some thought, "Well, the fountain seems to be an important part of the valley. I was thinking of destroying it..."

The middle-aged man nodded wisely and spoke, "Not a bad idea. From your 'little speech' down there, I heard that you knew that the sealing magic originates from the fountain and that it only affects 'unfaithful men'. Since you can sense that the fountain is the center of the valley trapping formation, I suppose you have a good background in magic formations? But I have to warn you, to destroy the fountain you will need a physical attack surpassing Sovereigns... Can you do that?"

Zhen Shi was speechless once more, 'What the fuck!? The curse of the Valley of No-Return is actually a magical formation? And I need to be stronger than a sovereign to destroy it?'

But he quickly calmed down and answered with a question of his own, "What is the state of the space within the valley? Can it be cracked to form a spatial tear?"

The middle-aged man nodded, "Sure. A few hundred Sovereigns, all with attack-oriented classes, could probably manage it within a few millennia. But whether they can survive the unstable space is another matter entirely... after all, not many have the ability to survive unstable space like you."

Hearing the impossible requirement for tearing through space, Zhen Shi began to doubt if even his spatial tear sword could tear through space... But hearing those last words he grew curious and asked, "How do you know I can survive unstable space?"

The middle-aged man laughed gleefully almost to himself and answered, "I saw you of course! Who else do you think would be bored enough to waste their ten-millennia-old collection of cultivation energy to lessen the attack by a genderless hippopotamus monster and save a random kid who can cultivate through multiple cultivation stages within a few minutes? Did you really think that I, Myne, would be idiotic to ask a random kid to help me escape?"

Hearing Myne's explanation, Zhen Shi's eyes glowed in understanding. Everything made sense now! Thinking back to his fight with Ammit-Xue Yuegui, he did remember a strange grey energy appearing and saving his life. So someone had been watching over him...

He couldn't help but feel guilty for thinking that his savior was actually a heartless scammer.

And now, since he truly did owe this Myne fellow, Zhen Shi decided to go all out to solve his problem and repay his debt. Escaping himself had nothing to do with it.

He spoke seriously, "Honestly, I have no proper background in magic formations. Nor do I have the ability to execute even a Sovereign level attack. So you have to tell me, is there a way to escape this place without directly destroying the fountain?"

Myne fell into thought and began to mumble, "Well, the fountain is the center of the valley formation... Since this is a formation almost reaching the divine tier, the formation center contains a minor plane of its own. If we could somehow enter the plane and force her... No, it's impossible. To even begin this plan, we'd need a powerful execution of Space Law..."

Zhen Shi's ears perked up as he was reminded of his Spatial Tear Sword, and excitedly answered, "Space Law! I can manage that! How strong will it's execution have to be?"

Myne was surprised that this kid could actually use Space Law. Nevertheless, he had faith and answered calmly, "At the very least it should reach the Sovereign Stage."

Zhen Shi frowned. Even with <Vermillion Dragonification> he couldn't reach such a level of power. Besides, he will definitely lose control due to the killing intent.

As such, concluding that the use of external help might be better, he asked, "Alright. Can you tell me the strongest attack that you can manage right now?"

While this was a question that was considered rather rude in the cultivation world, Myne didn't seem to mind and he explained nonchalantly, "Hmm... I could cause everyone within the valley to drop dead instantly? Or simply die of old age regardless of how long their actual life span is?"

Zhen Shi's eyes widened in surprise while thanking the gods for not having provoked this overpowered man, but shook his head in disappointment, "That won't work. It has to be of a physical nature..."

"That's problematic... I can't manage particularly strong physical attacks in this state, the best I can do is some minor explosion magic."

Zhen Shi's eyes brightened, "That's perfect!" He leaned closer to Myne's ear and whispered his plan.

Myne's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Kid, that's fucking crazy! It will depend a whole lot on you. I find it hard to believe that you could actually execute it..."

And with his eyes in a strange turmoil, he continued, "Even if we do succeed we will have to face a powerful witch that will be very difficult to deal with..."

Zhen Shi asked, "Hypothetically speaking, if I could keep this 'witch' distracted, perhaps even frozen in place, for a while, could you take her down?"

Myne frowned sorrowfully for a moment, but began to mutter, "If you really can do that, I should be able to turn the situation around. Perhaps I could even find the answers to the questions that have been haunting me... And as irresponsible as they are, the words of fate have never been false. Not even once..."

His muttering slowly grew loud and decisive, "Fine, kid, I'll bet on you! After all, what do I have to lose? I'll owe you my life if you can truly do as you say!"

Zhen Shi immediately grinned and nodded as he was fairly confident of his chances.

Having reached an agreement, Myne flicked his hand causing a blue flame to appear around the two of them once more.

???

And just like that, they reappeared down in the valley, much to the happiness of the group of cultivators who had been rather confused about their disappearance.

Deciding to start things off with a bang just for the fun of it, Zhen Shi walked forwards and began to speak charismatically to the group of cultivators, "MEN! You have been trapped in this cursed valley for so long! For the simple crime of trying to spread more love in the world! For such a sweet and innocent dream, the fate that has befallen upon you is a true tragedy! This damned anti-harem valley has ruined your lives... and will continue to do so!"

Pointing at the fountain he continued to shout, "Worse still, this anti-harem valley force-feeds its piss to you until you get hooked on it and forget your trust purpose! From harem lords to piss addicts... that's what you have become!"

While the cultivators were feeling rather pumped at the prospect of following the guidance of a powerful 'senior' and escaping this place, they couldn't help but cringe at these words.

Senior, can you please make it not sound as if we are piss drinking perverts?'

But Zhen Shi continued while enjoying this situation, "I understand that you have gotten addicted to this piss, simply because it is a life-extending piss. But piss will still be piss!"

Each time that 'word' was shouted out, it was similar to an arrow striking and incinerating the barely remaining dignity of the poor group of cultivators.

Senior can you please leave us, old-timers, at least a shred of dignity? Even if you are our senior in terms of power and capability, we have still lived for millennia. Don't you know you shouldn't insult the elderly?

"But dear piss addicts, there is no need to fret! Your time has come! Both I and Brother Myne will destroy this fountain of piss and free you all from your perverted addiction! What do you say?"

Despite their thoughts, the entire group of cultivators including Carols and Dolt dared not disagree with this powerful senior. Besides they were excited at the prospect of escape and as such, they shouted cheers of agreement.

Myne who was trying desperately not to laugh covered his grin with his hand and spoke, "Kid, you sure are interesting!"

"Alright! Let's do this!" said Zhen Shi without a hint of a smile as if he was completely serious.

Myne shook his head, and along with Zhen Shi walked towards the fountain which continued to calmly trickle out it's eternal 'water' without a care in the world, while the group of empowered cultivators followed Zhen Shi's lead and began to hurl obscenities against the 'anti-harem valley' and the 'piss fountain'. It was almost as if they were trying to make up for the disgrace they had faced under Zhen Shi's words...

Ignoring this, Myne grabbed onto Zhen Shi and flew up into the air. As a Nascent Soul cultivator, it wasn't too much of a surprise to see that Myne could fly.

They soon reached the upper limit allowed by the valley-trapping formation and Myne began to generate large amounts of mystical blue fire aether onto his outstretched hands while he used air aether to keep Zhen Shi afloat. Myne also began to combine strands of green air aether with the blue fire causing a terrifying brown flame to be born.

Zhen Shi who calmly analyzed Myne's air aether through his <Aether Vision> felt a certain concept click with his already high understanding of air aether. In that sudden moment, he gained an epiphany and was inspired leading to the understanding of a deeper principle of the air element.

As such, he went out on a whim and broke off Myne's air aether and used air aether under his own control to keep himself flying. He was now flying by himself!

Myne was impressed by Zhen Shi's sudden achievement, but still said, "Clever kid, I hope you're ready!" and slapped the bluish brown flame covered hands onto Zhen Shi's back.

BOOM!

A loud explosion resounded as the sky above the valley was covered in a terrifying mushroom cloud.

Zhen Shi was propelled down at an incredible speed with gravity speeding him up even further. Zhen Shi was flabbergasted, 'Fuck! In what world is this shit a minor explosion spell?'

Nevertheless, he quickly calmed himself and prepared himself...

While falling, he quickly brought out the Spatial Tear Sword and loaded it as an arrow into the divine bow.

Since he was unable to reach a Sovereign level of power by himself, he was going to be gambling and using a variety of unorthodox methods to increase the power of the spatial sword. But, of course, this method would be useless in a real fight, unless the Sovereign was kind enough to stay still in one place until they attacked...

His eyes glistening with madness, Zhen Shi activated <Vermillion Dragonification> at 65%, the maximum he could manage at the moment, and instantly transformed into a draconic demon with horns, tails, and claws. Surprisingly a pair of red feathered wings crawled out his back, almost as if his new ability to fly using air aether had influenced this skill as well...

RAAARRGGH!

Throwing caution to the wind, he let out a bestial roar as he put his life on the line to strengthen this attack.

He retracted his new wings shifting into a more aerodynamic shape to speed up his descent even further. At the same time, his draconic tail was used to rapidly whip portions of air that Zhen Shi solidified to gain even more momentum. He further utilized the wind aether to blow him down, and even fire aether to manifest as explosions pushing him down.

As a result, all the onlookers saw was a red streak the descended down from the skies. But Myne's eyes seemed to see through everything completely clearly...

Simultaneously, Zhen Shi calmly pulled back the bowstring and the Spatial Tear sword as if it was an arrow using the full force of his bestial physical strength. A strange law wafted out the spatial tear sword and began to generate powerful spatial waves. But even then, the space of the valley remained stable and untorn. Zhen Shi activated the maximum power of the bow he could manage.

And just when the bestial roar ended, Zhen Shi had arrived next to the fountain which had continued to trickle on calmly.

At point-blank range, he finally released the spatial sword while combining the entirety of his arrow intent into that one shot. He even made use of the formless chaotic energy that had caused the targets to explode back in the Brishman mansion.

As such, the sword streaked forwards with the immense power gained from both Zhen Shi and Myne's collective effort. And finally, the spatial tear sword struck the tip of the fountain.

BOOM DOOM!