Chapter 1524: White Clouds to Grey Dogs (Part Two)

The mountains were silent, the wind was still. Gong Chenying stood at the peak, as always, exuding a vibrant, youthful aura.

Her figure was tall and straight. As her clothes billowed, the red tassel of the long spear on her back, like blood, fluttered in the wind…

“…Min’er and I are both at the Mid-stage Nascent Soul. Our chances of a successful ascension are extremely high. We will naturally find you!”

Gong Chenying’s beautiful eyes were like stars as she gazed at the sea of clouds, as if she could find a path in the void.

When she returned to the clan, besides bringing back news of Li Yan, she had also been thinking about helping one of the three elders break through first.

However, all three had been in seclusion for a long time, and Gong Chenying had a True Essence Pill in her possession.

This medicinal pill was a gift from Zhao Min. Zhao Min said that when she was at the Sacred Demon Palace, she was favored by a Supreme Elder of the clan and received two of these pills.

She then gave one of them to Gong Chenying. After learning of the pill’s wondrous effects, Gong Chenying immediately refused it.

But Zhao Min later said only one thing: “We need to increase our strength as soon as possible, so that we can rely on our own divine abilities to find his whereabouts.”

And so, Gong Chenying accepted it.

She treasured this pill greatly, but after returning and learning of the clan’s current situation, she began to hesitate on how to use it.

She wanted to help the three elders in her clan break through. As for who to give it to, she could take out the pill and let the three of them decide who was more suitable.

Afterward, once she had fulfilled her greatest childhood wish of seeing the Tianli Clan dominate the region and be free of war, she would leave the lower realm with peace of mind.

And everything she had now was a foundation and a beginning laid out for her by that man, who had helped her fulfill her earliest childhood wish.

Gazing at the sea of clouds, a scene appeared in Gong Chenying’s eyes. She stood within a grand formation, her short black hair dancing. She began to form hand seals while looking up at the man she deeply loved.

She had told him to flee quickly, but that man, after giving her a deep look, stomped his foot heavily without the slightest hesitation, creating a heaven-shaking sonic boom in the void.

…In just an instant, cracks like an infant’s mouth had burst open all over Li Yan’s body, and jets of blood shot into the sky.

The bones of his shoulders were starkly exposed, and a large section of white bone had pierced through the skin of his knees. His body had become like a sieve, leaking everywhere…

Facing a Spirit Transformation Sword Cultivator who could not be shaken, the man’s eyes had turned crimson, yet his voice was as calm as ever, betraying not a hint of fluctuation or fear, but it resounded through heaven and earth!

“You have no idea what it means to perish together! Your Excellency, please watch!”

Then, with an overwhelming momentum, he swept up the Sword Cultivator, whose expression had changed from ferocious to horrified, and vanished from her sight.

From then on, there was no trace…

In the lower realm, within a chaotic flow space shrouded in darkness and ravaged by astral winds, a tall, shadowy figure flew onward, flickering in and out of sight.

This place was a vast, continuous cluster of meteorites, and the shadowy figure weaved through them without pause, its speed extremely fast.

If any Spirit Transformation cultivators were to witness this scene, their jaws would drop in astonishment.

None of them would dare to rush through such an environment at such a speed; it was simply courting death.

At a certain moment, this tall, shadowy figure suddenly stopped on a quietly floating meteorite.

As he stopped, his figure quickly solidified, revealing an unusually tall old man.

This person was none other than Li Yan’s master, whom he had only met as a wisp of Divine Will but had never truly seen in person—Dong Fuyi!

He stood on the meteorite, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings as he began to further discern the direction.

‘It should be in that direction. This is the fourteenth minor realm…’ Dong Fuyi thought to himself.

Over the years, he had constantly appeared in one minor realm after another, and in various spatial black holes.

These spatial black holes were places where even the top Spirit Transformation cultivators of the lower realm would likely never return from if they entered, making them feared forbidden lands.

Dong Fuyi had been searching for Li Yan, and he already had some clues!

Back then, he and True Lord Qianchong, along with the others, had returned to the Tianli Clan where Li Yan had disappeared and entered the chaotic flow space from there.

Subsequently, he and True Lord Qianchong continuously used their great divine abilities, employing spatial laws to trace past events. Both of them were extremely adept with this type of law.

True Lord Qianchong’s earth-attribute spatial laws were better suited for constructing five-element spaces, while Dong Fuyi used water as the source to observe the transformations of the five elements.

Working together, they actually managed to trace a hint of the Five Elements Disarray Mantle in this chaotic flow space, which greatly excited them.

The four of them followed this clue, searching along the trail, and finally arrived within a pocket dimension.

However, after entering that place, no matter how they tried to cast their arts, all traces of the Five Elements Disarray Mantle could no longer be traced. It had been completely swallowed and erased by the pocket dimension.

However, in that pocket dimension, they found some almost invisible fragments of a sword body, which made all their hearts sink.

They already knew that Li Yan had disappeared together with a Spirit Transformation Sword Cultivator. After tracing with their great divine abilities, they confirmed that Li Yan had definitely used the Five Elements Disarray Mantle.

With their combat experience, combined with the circumstances of Li Yan’s disappearance with the Sword Cultivator, they knew that Li Yan had also used the Quaking Cosmos art at the same time.

Discovering this made Dong Fuyi’s heart ache even more. Li Yan’s talent for cultivation was so high; he was no longer the blockhead he had first met.

In a short period of time, he had cultivated to the Late-stage Nascent Soul, and the arts he cast could already affect a Spirit Transformation cultivator.

This was enough to show the level he had reached in cultivating the Gui Water Immortal Sect’s methods.

However, in this final pocket dimension they found, they only discovered traces of the Spirit Transformation cultivator’s demise. So what about Li Yan?

Did they perish together, or did something else happen? Their initial intuition was that Li Yan had also died here.

This was because the red light in this pocket dimension was too strong; even Spirit Transformation cultivators could not resist it at all.

But then they remembered that Li Yan still had the Earthen Patch. They felt it was unlikely. As long as Li Yan wasn’t a fool, he would have hidden in the Earthen Patch if things got desperate.

Li Yan had done such a thing before at the Sacred Demon Palace.

But here, they searched carefully over and over again, but could not find any trace of the Earthen Patch.

So the two discussed it for a while and then once again cast their arts to trace every inch of this pocket dimension…

In the end, they did indeed make an unexpected discovery. It seemed that there had once been a spatial node in this pocket dimension, but this node had already disappeared.

However, it was precisely because of this that Dong Fuyi and True Lord Qianchong fell into long contemplation.

Without being able to see the node with their own eyes, they couldn’t determine whether this node led to the upper realm as an ascension node, or to another domain in this realm.

If the node still existed, they had plenty of methods to determine Li Yan’s whereabouts. But with the node gone, the clue ended here, completely broken.

The two weighed their options and decided to first search the various large and small domains nearby carefully.

The largest nearby domain was the Wind God Continent. It was obvious that Li Yan had not returned to the Wind God Continent, otherwise he would have gone back to the Tianli Clan long ago.

So the two agreed to split into three teams. Ping Tu and Pei Buchong would form one team, and they would each go to some of the smaller domains nearby to search for Li Yan.

Regardless of the result, they would all reconvene at a designated location in ten years.

And so, ten years later, when the four of them met again, they discovered with dismay that they had still failed to find any trace of Li Yan.

During this ten-year period, they had also separately gone to the Tianli Clan and the Malevolent Spirit Sect, afraid of missing Li Yan’s return. Almost as expected, they did not find that Li Yan had unexpectedly returned.

At that time, Su Hong had not yet passed the message to Zhao Min, so even when True Lord Qianchong asked Zhao Min, there was still no result.

Under these circumstances, how could Dong Fuyi be willing to give up?

He decided to stay behind and search more black holes or pocket dimensions to see if Li Yan had been accidentally teleported and trapped inside.

True Lord Qianchong, on the other hand, took Ping Tu and Pei Buchong with him to the Immortal Spirit Realm first.

This was the other outcome they had guessed: that Li Yan might have entered the Immortal Spirit Realm.

The plan was for True Lord Qianchong to go up and begin making inquiries from various sources. Although the Five Immortal Sects lived in seclusion in the Immortal Spirit Realm, they all had their own connections, and the means at their disposal were far greater than in the lower realm.

Dong Fuyi would remain behind for now. After searching all the possible black holes and pocket dimensions in the vicinity, he too would return to the Immortal Spirit Realm.

“Now, even in some minor domains, cultivators searching for Miscellaneous Spirit Roots have appeared. This must be the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect causing trouble again. Damn them, they are a hauntingly persistent pest!”

As he flew, Dong Fuyi thought about the things he had encountered in some minor domains in recent years, and couldn’t help but scoff inwardly.

When he and True Lord Qianchong were searching for Li Yan in the nearby domains, this situation had not yet appeared.

He could guess that after he rescued Qianchong, the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect was searching for them everywhere again. But the ones he encountered were all small fry; there was no point in him taking action.

Most importantly, he had encountered situations like this countless times. Even in the Immortal Spirit Realm, there were all sorts of people constantly asking about the Five Immortal Sects. He couldn’t just kill every single one he met.

If he did that, while he might feel good for a moment, he would also be inadvertently leaving a trail for others to follow. By following the clues, they would eventually find him.

“Next, I should also look for the Yin-Yang Chaos Sect’s base in the lower realm and see who they’ve sent over this time. Did they track me all the way from the North Ice Continent? I’ll kill him for sure!”

Dong Fuyi thought to himself. If he was going to kill someone, he was going to kill a big one!

After identifying the direction, the tall figure flickered and once again disappeared into the chaotic flow space…

In a minor domain of the lower realm, within a marketplace, there was also an emporium named Gui Qu Lai Xi.

At this moment, in a room on the third floor, the tall and thin shopkeeper of the emporium was looking at the beautiful woman before him with a reverent expression.

She was a beautiful young woman with bright eyes and a charming appearance. But at this moment, her face was etched with extreme weariness.

The tall and thin shopkeeper didn’t know why his young mistress had gone through so much trouble to teleport all the way here, and then, without any rest, had urgently summoned him.

Su Hong was indeed very tired. She had too many things to do, and she had come here to inquire about news of that person.

This minor domain was an inconspicuous one among the countless large and small domains of the lower realm, which were like stars in the sky.

But this was an important channel for Gui Qu Lai Xi to communicate with the upper realm and transmit information.

And it was precisely because Su Hong was closest to this location that after handling her affairs, she had teleported here without stopping, escorted by two protectors.

“Shopkeeper Ni, has any message for me arrived?”

As soon as Su Hong saw the shopkeeper enter, she immediately sent the two protectors behind her out and then quickly asked.

She had previously sent a message to the upper realm from another shop, asking them to investigate the matter she had entrusted to them in further detail.

At the same time, she told the people in the upper realm that no matter what news they found, they must transmit the exact same message to all the shops in the lower realm that could receive it.

This way, as soon as she had a free moment, she could rush to the nearest shop that could receive news from the upper realm.

However, doing this would consume an enormous amount of financial resources. A single distribution of messages to different shops in the lower realm could bankrupt a first-rate sect, leaving it with nothing.

Shopkeeper Ni heard her and immediately nodded.

He had only recently received the message from the upper realm for the young mistress. However, it wasn’t marked as urgent, so he hadn’t been in a hurry to send someone to deliver it to her.

But seeing the young mistress arrive and ask about this matter before anything else, it seemed that this matter was very important.

But why hadn’t the deacon in the upper realm who handled this marked it as urgent?

Shopkeeper Ni naturally didn’t need any further instructions. He acknowledged with a sound and hurriedly got up to retrieve the Jade Slip.

A short while later, Su Hong held a Jade Slip in her snow-white, jade-like hand, lost in thought.

“The person asking for news… might be in the far west? Might be… how can it still be ‘might be’ after all this time of investigating…”

Su Hong’s charming face furrowed.

After a long while, she finally noticed that Shopkeeper Ni was still standing there with his hands clasped. She immediately waved her hand.

“You may go and attend to your business!”

After Shopkeeper Ni left, Su Hong also calmed her emotions slightly. She was a little tired; her mind was burdened with too many things to consider every day.

Now that she thought about it, she had been too hasty. First of all, transmitting messages between the upper and lower realms was not just a matter of financial resources; it also took time. Sometimes, a single message could take many years to arrive.

Normally, unless there was extremely important news, messages between the upper and lower realms would only be sent by a dedicated messenger, which was a life-threatening risk.

Therefore, in most cases, messages were only transmitted after they had accumulated to a certain number.

And when they were transmitted to the upper realm, they were only sent to the main headquarters.

If there were more messages that needed to be distributed to other domains, it would still have to wait for the headquarters’ regular schedule, when a batch of items was being sent to a certain domain, before some messages would be transmitted along with them.

Otherwise, even with the vast financial resources of Gui Qu Lai Xi, they simply could not support such frequent transmissions.

And since she didn’t want her parents to know, although she had made a special request, it was only to have the other party distribute the messages more widely.

The news she had just received was probably obtained by the upper realm a long time ago. And the Northern Pastoral Realm was vast, unimaginably so.

Even if Gui Qu Lai Xi had shops there, they were only established in places they considered important. To search the remote far west would be laborious, and crucially, the journey itself would be too time-consuming.

It was only at this point that Su Hong realized she had miscalculated the time.

‘I think that person is you. According to the news I received, you used some kind of secret art to actually capture a Spirit Transformation-level Sword Cultivator.’

‘After that, you should have entered the chaotic flow space and then mistakenly entered a spatial node, which happened to be an ascension node. That’s why you ended up in the Immortal Spirit Realm.’

‘Should I also end my training in the lower realm? Should I return to the Immortal Spirit Realm ahead of schedule to investigate personally? That would be much faster, but how would I explain it to my parents…’

Su Hong thought to herself. She probably never imagined that her deductions were completely correct.

As Su Hong pondered, she occasionally bit her fiery red lips with her snow-white teeth, and her face began to flush, making her look charming and bewitchingly beautiful…