As the passage became narrow, the white dragon shrunk in size as well. It finally charged out of the well, dispersing into dragon aura as the nine men toppled onto the ground.


    The next second, Wilbur grabbed the cover of the well and dropped it on top of the opening. A golden seal appeared, shing brightly in the air.


    The ground rumbled several times, then everything went back to normal.


    Mitch, Vernon, and the others had just gotten up and immediately fell back onto the ground from the quaking.


    "What..."


    "What on earth just happened?"


    The explorers looked at each other in shock.


    "Whew!"


    Wilbur copsed onto the ground as his chest heaved, flicking off the water on his face. Had it not been for the formation sealing the tree in ce, Wilbur and the others might not have been able to escape.


    After all, what happened just now was far too shocking. The tree''s branches had stretched all the way to the opening of the well. What kind of being was that tree even?


    Wilbur was nothing but confused by what he had just encountered. However, it was a treasure that had been left behind from a previous civilization, after all. Despite the fact that there was so much left unknown back there, there was no way he would find an exnation for everything right now.


    "That was terrifying. We almost couldn''t make it."


    Eli said, "I would have given up on the treasure in the first ce if I''d known this would happen."


    The men grumbled to each other. All of a sudden, Wilbur saw a sh of golden light in the forest. Following that, Josie appeared wearing a set of armor. He smirked at Wilbur. "You look like a mess. However... Congrattions on passing my first test!"


    Wilbur nodded wordlessly. He was nearly drained of energy, and hardly wanted to speak.


    Just then, Vernon and the others spotted Josie. Bill asked, "Who are you? Why are you here? Why are you dressed like that?"


    Josie said, "I''m an explorer too, guys. Can I have a word with you guys in private?"


    Josie walked a dozen or so meters away with the explorers. The air shed with golden light, and the explorers fell into a daze while Josie Silently led them out of the forest.


    Wilbur saw this, and asked, "What did you do? Why are they leaving?"


    "It''s fine," said Josie. "I just wiped their memories. They''ll return to the city safely and go back to the lives they had. You know yourself that cultivators and regr mortals belong to different worlds."


    "You wiped their memories?"


    Wilbur looked confused. "Senior Josie, show mercy on them. If they go back to their lives, they''re still going toe back here to explore. That''s unfair to them."


    "No," said Josie. "I''ve wiped all their memories about the treasure. They''ll only have their own memories left, and they won''t forget about the help you gave them. However, they won''t remember your name, or what you look like."


    Although Wilbur was a cultivator, he hade into contact with mortals before.


    Nothing serious had happened in the past, but this situation seemed to be severe enough for Mitch and the other explorers'' memories to be wiped.