Chapter 1344: Thirty Years East of the River

Ever since Li Yan disappeared, the two demons had become quiet. In that battle, they had been mere spectators, utterly powerless to help him. But the fact that they were still alive strongly suggested that Li Yan was also alive. However, faced with the unknown within the chaotic flow of space, a place where even Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation cultivators could not control the forces at play, the two demons couldn’t be certain if Li Yan was truly alive, or if he had entered some isolated space where his imprint had been completely erased, thereby allowing them to survive.

Of course, they believed that Li Yan was alive. This was Gong Chenying’s greatest conviction, which was why she had to go to the Desolate Moon Continent to reconfirm the matter of the Soul Lamp. It was a double confirmation. The two demons became very taciturn, spending their days cultivating. Perhaps because their state of mind had been affected, although their cultivation had improved somewhat, Zi Kun had been stuck at the peak of the third-rank for decades, unable to advance. Gong Chenying thus planned to take the two demons with her back to the Desolate Moon Continent, to prevent them from wallowing in self-pity and resentment upon seeing their familiar surroundings.

The departure of the two humans and two demons was quiet; only a few in the clan knew. Many years later, many clan members would still remember the valiant and unparalleled contemporary “Qing A Wang,” and the two handsome demons who often appeared in the village… And in every corner of the Wind God Continent, as negotiations between Wind Beasts and humans increased, whenever such matters arose, the eternal legend of a man named Li Yan would be told…

Su Hong looked at the message in her hand. For all these years, no matter which domain she was in, she would have people inquire about the Desolate Moon Continent and about news of that person from the Wind God Continent. But that person had only left behind a legend of his turned back, with no further trace of him to be found.

‘You were always so calm in the face of trouble, prioritizing your own life above all else, weren’t you? You should have chosen to run. With your cunning, you should have been able to survive. So why did you fight to the death this time… Was it for her, the one you loved?’

In a private room in a market town, Su Hong looked at the jade slip in her hand. Her skin was like snow, her dark hair like a waterfall. Her long, jade-like fingers held a jade slip. She had been sitting quietly for a long time. Su Hong’s beautiful face was calm, but in her mind flashed the image of her laughing and talking with that person in the Tianli Clan. And all of this had become a memory…

Looking out the window at the bustling shop entrance below, where an attendant was greeting passersby with a smile, she no longer saw that person saying to the attendant, “Please inform Shopkeeper Su that an old acquaintance from the wind and snow has come to visit!”

After an unknown amount of time, Su Hong stood up. With a blank expression, she walked towards the door, and then her somewhat weary voice drifted out. “Today, we won’t go to the next market town. We’ll go tomorrow.”

As her voice fell, the two black-clothed, masked elders at the door of the private room stood silently, without a sound. They glanced at each other. They had noticed that in recent years, their young miss would often sit alone by the window, watching the bustling streets below, as if lost in thought, or perhaps just watching the scenery. The silhouette of Su Hong as she ascended the stairs, though still graceful and elegant, seemed to have lost some of its former spirit…

Thirty years after Li Yan left the Wind God Continent, Hong Yin and Gong Chenying encountered a cold and aloof woman in the chaotic flow of space. It was none other than Zhao Min. After she had formed her Nascent Soul, Li Yan had still not returned. Zhao Min had decided to use the opportunity of training to go to the Wind God Continent to find him. Unexpectedly, in a dark space, she saw several familiar figures…

Immortal Spirit Realm, Northern Pastoral Realm. Summer turned to winter, spring gave way to autumn. The cave residence where Li Yan was in seclusion had not been opened for thirty-seven years.

On this day, several cultivators stood facing each other in the sky above the Broken Army Sect. Below, the disciples of the Broken Army Sect were all tense. In the air, the Broken Army Sect had only Shangguan Tianque and his junior martial sister. Opposite them stood four people: two men and two women. Both sides stared at each other, and the air itself seemed to freeze, bone-chillingly cold.

“Brother Tianque, hand over those five disciples. If they truly weren’t the ones who did it, then everything is fine. Otherwise, even if we take this matter to the Blood Lantern Sect, you will still be in the wrong!” A man as burly as a savage bear, wearing a sleeveless tunic made from demonic beast hide, stared menacingly at Shangguan Tianque. As he spoke, he flexed his thick arms, the muscles on them rippling like rabbits.

Shangguan Tianque suppressed his anger, his expression icy. “Mang Yan, those five disciples of my sect were just passing by. The ones who ambushed your disciples and stole their storage rings were someone else entirely. What has it to do with them? Are you saying that if you’re fighting someone and I happen to pass by, I should be dragged into it?”

“Shangguan Tianque, that’s just your side of the story. Why not have those five come over and let us perform a soul-search? Then everything will be clear, won’t it?” As soon as Shangguan Tianque finished speaking, another man opposite him, a middle-aged man with a gloomy and sinister expression, abruptly stopped rubbing the prayer beads in his hand and said darkly.

“Search the souls of my sect’s disciples? Without any proof? Do you really think we’re that easy to bully?” Upon hearing this, Shangguan Tianque’s beautiful junior sister’s red dress began to stir without any wind, her face masked with frost. The other party was clearly just looking for trouble. She even suspected that they had deliberately set a trap to create this outcome. Those disciples of her sect had just been passing by a place. The moment they saw others fighting, they had kept their distance. Yet afterward, someone had come knocking on their door, claiming that her disciples were murderers and thieves, demanding they be handed over, yet they couldn’t produce any solid evidence.

Just now, they had secretly questioned those disciples via voice transmission. They had expressed their grievances, stating that they were merely passing by. Moreover, at the time, there were only three Golden Core cultivators among their group of five, while the fighting group had a full fifteen people, all of them Golden Core experts. Even if they had wanted to rob them, going up against those odds would have been suicide.

Shangguan Tianque and his junior sister understood the other party’s intentions clearly. The people opposite them were from the same sect—the Dragon-Catching Sect. This sect was also a fourth-rate sect under the jurisdiction of the Blood Lantern Sect, and its territory bordered that of the Broken Army Sect. Because they were both close to the Heavenly Demon Prairie, it was said that their first-generation ancestor had captured a Li Fire Earth Dragon. Later, that Li Fire Earth Dragon became his companion spirit beast and mount, hence the name “Dragon-Catching Sect,” to display the sect’s strength.

The various sects under the jurisdiction of the Blood Lantern Sect were all in competition with each other. Every sect wanted to expand its territory and acquire the cultivation resources of others. But the Blood Lantern Sect itself had to deal with external invading forces, so naturally, it required these sects not to go to war without reason, otherwise it would be beset by both internal and external troubles. But the cultivation world was the cultivation world. This kind of restriction only applied under normal circumstances. If there was a reason that made a fight unavoidable, the cultivators of both sides would certainly act. Usually, the Blood Lantern Sect would assess the cause of the matter, analyze it, and then mete out punishments of varying severity.

Friction between the Dragon-Catching Sect and the Broken Army Sect had a long history. They would typically fight every few years, with the goal of obtaining the other sect’s territory. But they had both gained experience from their clashes. Minor skirmishes had little value to the sects and would only result in severe punishment for both sides from the Blood Lantern Sect. Compared to this punishment, the benefits they gained were not worth it. Therefore, whenever the two sides decided to fight, they would tacitly send out their top combatants. As long as the opponent’s top combat power was killed, the impact on a sect would be enough to shake its very foundation. Taking over the opponent’s territory would then be the next logical step.

For so many years, the two sides had periodically erupted into battle. Both sides had suffered casualties, but the Broken Army Sect had suffered more, losing a total of six Nascent Soul cultivators over time. This was the reason for the lack of Nascent Soul elders in the Broken Army Sect. Of course, the deaths of other Nascent Soul elders were unrelated to the Dragon-Catching Sect. Among these cultivators were both guest elders they had invited and Nascent Soul elders promoted from within their own sect. The situation on the Dragon-Catching Sect’s side was similar.

Although the Broken Army Sect had suffered more casualties, fortunately, Shangguan Tianque and his junior martial sister had always remained unharmed. They were the Pillar of Stability for the sect, which was what had allowed the Broken Army Sect to stand firm. Apart from Yu Banjiang finding Li Yan, in these years, the Broken Army Sect had on one hand increased the cultivation resources for its disciples, hoping to produce a few more Nascent Soul cultivators, and on the other hand, continued to search for guest elders. They had found several Nascent Soul cultivators, but in the end, they were all politely refused. The reason was that the fighting between the Dragon-Catching Sect and the Broken Army Sect was too fierce, and the death toll was too high. The compensation offered by the Broken Army Sect was not enough to be worth risking their lives.

In truth, Shangguan Tianque was also helpless. Most of the sect’s resources were invested in his and his junior sister’s cultivation. There wasn’t much left to offer. He wanted to make a final push for the Spirit Transformation realm. Once he succeeded, all problems would be solved. At the same time, he and his junior sister didn’t fully trust guest elders. Of the eight Nascent Soul cultivators who had died, only three were guest elders. The rest who had perished were cultivators the sect had painstakingly nurtured. It was just that the fighting between the two sides was too intense; almost every time it was a life-and-death struggle.

Shangguan Tianque and his junior sister had survived only thanks to the divine abilities of late-stage Nascent Soul Great Cultivators and the rich experience gained from rising from the very bottom through slaughter when they established the sect. In fact, there were many times when the two of them had faced life-and-death situations. On one occasion, after Shangguan Tianque was severely injured, his junior sister had guarded over his barely breathing body for three long years before he finally awoke.

The two sects were basically evenly matched. Therefore, if one was nearly annihilated, the other would also suffer a great loss of vitality, so a situation of taking advantage of the other’s weakness couldn’t arise. But this time, Shangguan Tianque saw that the other side had two extra people: the sinister middle-aged man and a plain-looking middle-aged woman. One was a late-stage Nascent Soul, the other mid-stage. They must be guest elders the Dragon-Catching Sect had recently hired. As for Mang Yan and the other bewitching young woman, they were old acquaintances.

Although both sides knew that a fierce battle would surely ensue once they came knocking, it was customary to state a pretext beforehand. Shangguan Tianque knew it was a pretext, but he still had to ask for the reason, otherwise he would find a reason to report them directly to the Blood Lantern Sect. He was already preparing to break through to the Spirit Transformation realm and didn’t want any complications. But when Mang Yan told him to hand over the five disciples, he understood their intentions. Their motives were extremely sinister and vicious. If he really handed over those five disciples, the disciples of the entire sect would feel their hearts turn cold. Even if he became a Spirit Transformation cultivator in the future, he wouldn’t be able to hold the sect together. If he didn’t hand them over, a great battle would be justified.

And Mang Yan’s malicious intentions didn’t stop there. Among the five disciples he demanded was a Golden Core disciple who was the most promising in the sect, with the greatest hope of forming a Nascent Soul after Yu Banjiang. This move by the other party was aimed at severing their roots.

Just as the red-robed woman of the Broken Army Sect’s voice fell, her face masked with frost, a fierce and ruthless glint flashed in the eyes of the plain-looking middle-aged woman opposite them.

“Little wench, if you don’t want to hand them over today, we’ll beat you until you do!” As she spoke, a ferocious aura erupted from her body. At the same time, her fingers, as thick as carrots, pointed towards the other’s forehead…

Inside the cave residence, Li Yan was meditating with his eyes closed. His Sea of Consciousness had only slowly recovered a little bit up to now, but it was still very weak. Once the Sea of Consciousness and the soul were injured, unless one had high-grade medicinal pills, relying on one’s own nourishment was an extremely slow process, and one could not be the least bit impatient.

Although Li Yan had managed to condense some Divine Sense over the years, he still dared not use even a sliver of it casually. The attempt he made after waking up that time had nearly caused his Sea of Consciousness to completely collapse. Thinking back on that situation, Li Yan was filled with lingering fear. If his Sea of Consciousness had collapsed back then, it was highly likely there would have been no possibility of reversal. Even though he was now in the Immortal Spirit Realm, he still couldn’t be sure that such miraculous medicinal pills truly existed here. And even if they did, he would have to be able to afford them.

Therefore, for all these years, he had been wholeheartedly focused on recovery. While cultivating magical power, he was also stabilizing his Sea of Consciousness inch by inch, like repairing porcelain. At that time, his Sea of Consciousness was like a porcelain vase covered in cracks; a gentle breeze would have shattered it into a thousand tiny pieces. It was fragile beyond measure.

After decades of nourishment, a very thin layer of crystal had appeared on the outer surface of those fragments and cracks in Li Yan’s Sea of Consciousness. This was the beginning of its slow healing. Li Yan estimated that in another ten years or so, he should be able to use a little of his Divine Sense’s power. As long as he didn’t exceed the strength of a Foundation Establishment stage’s Divine Sense, his Sea of Consciousness should be able to withstand it. In truth, all he needed was enough Divine Sense power to open the “Earthen Patch,” which was only at the level of the Qi Condensation stage. But Li Yan wasn’t sure if True Essence Pills could also repair the Sea of Consciousness. And he also wanted his Sea of Consciousness to be further stabilized before he dared to use his Divine Sense again, lest the decades of painstaking effort be ruined in an instant.