The shadowy figure transformed from the Confucian scholar appeared for just a brief moment before vanishing again from everyone’s sight. Wang Tiangu and the others were momentarily stunned, their faces all wearing peculiar expressions.
Wei Wuyi remained silent for a moment before speaking up, “Sect Master Wang, is that person truly the revered Cangkun from the past? However, he is now merely a remnant soul. Even if he was once invincible in his prime, he poses no threat now. Was it he who informed you about the Spirit Void Garden?”
“In a way, he is both Cangkun and not Cangkun. But it is indeed from him that we learned of the Spirit Void Garden,” the Ghost Spirit Sect Master replied, his expression easing upon hearing that the spatial rift was newly formed. He now answered Wei Wuyi’s question calmly.
“What do you mean by that? There’s no need to keep us in suspense, fellow Daoist,” Wei Wuyi said, his expression darkening slightly with displeasure.
“Brother Wei, you misunderstand. The soul we just saw in the scroll is actually the remnant soul of a past avatar of Cangkun. This avatar was destroyed while exploring the Fallen Demon Valley after encountering a restriction. Cangkun then placed its remnant soul into this scroll artifact, crafted from fragments of Soul-Nourishing Wood, to recuperate. However, the true Cangkun has been dead for countless years. This remnant soul, aside from retaining some memories, has gained autonomy and can now be considered a separate entity,” the Ghost Spirit Sect Master explained unhurriedly.
Wei Wuyi looked somewhat surprised upon hearing this. Wang Tiangu, on the other hand, pursed his lips, inwardly sighing in frustration—whether because he had failed to uncover the scroll’s secret or because he had guessed wrong again, he wasn’t sure.
“So that’s how it is. It seems you’ve struck some kind of deal with this remnant soul, which is why it revealed the Spirit Void Garden to you. But that doesn’t matter to me. As long as I can enter the Spirit Void Garden, I won’t interfere with whatever agreement you’ve made. At my age, all I seek is to reach the Deity Transformation stage and ascend to the Spirit Realm,” Wei Wuyi said coldly, nodding.
“Brother Wei is indeed a reasonable man. That’s for the best. Now, since this spatial rift is merely a temporary occurrence, let us proceed!” The Ghost Spirit Sect Master smiled faintly before signaling a disciple to lead the way once more.
The Ghost Spirit Sect disciple, though pale-faced, silently skirted the spatial rift ahead and continued forward. Wei Wuyi followed at a steady pace, his expression unreadable, while the rest of the Ghost Spirit Sect members trailed behind. The group pressed on toward the towering altar visible in the distance.
—
“What’s going on? Your flying mouse has gone out of control!” Standing atop a glacier covered in thick ice, Han Li looked up at the reappearing crimson glow in the sky, his expression dark as he turned to Violet Spirit beside him. Behind them, a massive ice fissure over twenty zhang wide gaped ominously—the very passage Han Li had just used to re-enter the inner valley.
The surroundings were a frozen wasteland, with biting winds howling past. Yet Han Li stood unfazed in his thin green robe, utterly indifferent to the cold.
“I don’t know. My flying mouse was fine outside, but the moment we emerged from the fissure, it suddenly went berserk. Luckily, I recalled it in time, or who knows what might have happened. Even now, inside the spirit beast pouch, it remains wildly agitated,” Violet Spirit replied, her delicate brows furrowed in confusion.
Han Li pondered for a moment before suddenly slapping a storage pouch. A small swarm of Gold Devouring Beetles flew out, buzzing as they formed a tiny cloud above his head. With a mental command, the swarm obediently returned to the pouch, showing no signs of losing control.
Han Li stroked his chin, his eyes flickering with thought. He then tapped another spirit beast pouch, and a streak of black light shot out, circling once before landing a few feet in front of him. The light faded, revealing a small black monkey the size of a palm—the Soulcrying Beast.
The beast yawned, blinking sleepily as it looked at Han Li with a dazed expression.
After observing it for a while, Han Li expressionlessly waved his sleeve, summoning a burst of azure mist. Moments later, the Soulcrying Beast vanished without a trace.
“Since your flying mouse is out of control, regardless of the reason, we’ll have to track the Ghost Spirit Sect members ourselves. Fortunately, now that we’re in the inner valley, we shouldn’t be far behind them. I’ll use my abilities to search for their trail. Stand guard for me in the meantime,” Han Li said after some deliberation.
The fact that the Gold Devouring Beetles and Soulcrying Beast showed no abnormalities in the inner valley eased his mind. After all, one was a legendary insect, and the other a mutated beast of great ferocity—far from ordinary spirit beasts.
Unbeknownst to Han Li, however, the South Barbarian Marquis’s messenger birds remained unaffected in the valley, while the borrowed spirit birds of the Mulan shamans, like Violet Spirit’s flying mouse, had also gone berserk. The reason behind this was tied to certain secrets of the inner valley.
“Then I’ll have to rely on Brother Han’s abilities,” Violet Spirit said softly, biting her red lip. Han Li nodded and calmly sat cross-legged, closing his eyes.
Soon, a radiant glow enveloped him, suffusing his figure with an ethereal aura. Violet Spirit stood quietly nearby, her limpid eyes fixed unblinkingly on Han Li’s ordinary face.
Truth be told, Violet Spirit herself wasn’t entirely sure what feelings she harbored for this man. They weren’t purely friends—at the very least, whenever she caught Han Li’s fleeting admiration for her beauty, she felt a faint thrill of delight.
Yet they were far from being confidants. Despite having shared life-and-death trials, Han Li had never truly opened his heart to her. Instead, he seemed to deliberately maintain a distance, showing no intention of deepening their relationship.
In reality, given Han Li’s current cultivation and status, if he were to propose marriage, she wasn’t sure whether she would accept or refuse. When she had inadvertently learned from the Song woman of the Falling Cloud Sect that Han Li already had a Daoist companion named Nangong Wan, she had felt a pang of loss—as if something she had long desired had been snatched away by another.
Gazing at Han Li’s face bathed in azure light, Violet Spirit’s expression grew distant, her thoughts wandering.
Han Li, deep in meditation, was oblivious to her musings. He had already extended his formidable spiritual sense, sweeping across a radius of a hundred li in search of any trace of Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators. Yet after a while, he found nothing.
Frowning slightly, he expanded his search to nearly two hundred li, but still detected no signs of other cultivators.
After a moment’s thought, Han Li removed a spirit beast pouch filled with Gold Devouring Beetles and tossed it into the air. With a hand seal, over a thousand beetles swarmed out, forming a golden cloud.
“Go!” Han Li’s eyes snapped open as he sent a azure incantation into the cloud. The beetles buzzed and scattered in all directions like golden blossoms.
Closing his eyes again, Han Li’s aura intensified, his body glowing brilliantly. Violet Spirit watched in astonishment, unsure what grand technique he was employing.
In truth, Han Li had pushed the Great Development Art to its limits, splitting his spiritual sense into over a thousand strands. While a few remained to guard his body, the rest latched onto each beetle, dispersing far and wide.
Through the beetles’ eyes, he no longer needed to sense cultivator auras—instead, he meticulously searched for the next marker. Some beetles inevitably fell into spatial rifts or became trapped in restrictions, but Han Li’s spiritual strands, being intangible and merely attached, would abandon their hosts at the first sign of danger and return to him. Even so, over a dozen strands were lost before they could retreat.
Each loss paled Han Li’s face slightly, but his spiritual power was vast enough that the damage was negligible. Soon, his complexion returned to normal.
After a long search, Han Li finally discovered a clue—the Ghost Spirit Sect’s trail. With a mental command, all the beetles turned back. When the last one re-entered the pouch, Han Li opened his eyes, a cold smile playing on his lips.
“Let’s go. I’ve found their trail.” With that, he rose and shot into the sky as an azure streak. Violet Spirit, delighted, followed as a dazzling arc of light.
Before long, they arrived above a field of scattered boulders. Han Li stared at a freshly dug pit below, his expression odd.
“This must be the next marker. If I recall correctly, there are two more markers before we reach the Spirit Candle Fruit’s location. The next one should be easy to find—it’s our best chance to catch up to the Ghost Spirit Sect,” Han Li said calmly. With a flick of his sleeve, a white light flew out, materializing into the Wind Riding Chariot several zhang ahead.
“Board the chariot. We’ll need to speed up to catch them. Your flying speed is too slow—we must increase it severalfold to have any hope of overtaking them,” Han Li instructed Violet Spirit firmly.
“Severalfold? But the inner valley is riddled with spatial rifts—wouldn’t that be too dangerous?” Violet Spirit exclaimed, her face paling.
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