Chapter 1611: Flowers Bloom in Their Own Time (Part One)

After bathing and changing into a fresh set of ebon robes, Li Yan sat cross-legged upon a prayer mat. Between his palms, a cluster of gray, misty haze flickered into existence.

This gray mist was the manifestation of the thirty-third pale-green thread within his body. Only after it emerged from his physical form did it take on this nebulous appearance.

Perhaps because this thirty-third thread remained quite weak, Li Yan had found himself unable to stir it in the preceding years, no matter how he tried to circulate his energy. Unlike the previous poisons of his Splintering Poison Body, which could be condensed outside the form immediately upon their birth to be tested and utilized, this new toxin had remained frustratingly internal.

During the intervals of his regular cultivation, Li Yan had spent countless hours researching this newly born poison. However, it had resisted all attempts at external condensation. He had been forced to observe it solely through his Divine Sense. Yet, no matter how his consciousness prodded or touched it, its specific function remained an enigma.

In truth, even if he could determine its effect, it would have been of little use if it could not be released. After all, a poison that could not leave the body was little more than a tool for self-sabotage.

It was only recently, after his body tempering technique broke through to the mid-stage Spirit Transformation Realm, that Li Yan finally succeeded in condensing this toxin outside his body. Upon its first appearance, a series of simple tests revealed its purpose, leaving Li Yan thoroughly stunned.

He had initially assumed that a toxin so difficult to condense would be equally difficult to test, perhaps even more so than the trial-and-error process he had endured with his Illusion Poison. To his surprise, the result manifested with effortless clarity. The nature of this poison was something even Li Yan found inconceivable.

Its effect was the suppression of Divine Sense!

Based on Li Yan’s current Spirit Transformation Realm, inhaling a single wisp or allowing the mist to enter the body would suppress a cultivator’s Divine Sense for approximately one breath of time. Furthermore, as long as the mist shrouded an area, Li Yan’s own Divine Sense—despite being at the Spirit Transformation Realm—was unable to penetrate it. It was as if his sight had met a solid wall; his consciousness was met only with a sensation of chaotic, primordial disorder.

This phenomenon immediately reminded Li Yan of the terrifying suppression the natural laws of the Earth-Truth Realm exerted upon a cultivator’s consciousness. He had never dreamed that his own body would spontaneously generate a similar toxin.

As his mind raced, a possibility occurred to him. He had successfully transcended his Spirit Transformation Tribulation within the Earth-Truth Realm. The Heavenly Tribulation he had faced then had been generated by the very laws of that world.

‘Could it be that because I achieved Spirit Transformation there, the advancement of my Splintering Poison Body was affected by the scouring of that unique tribulation? Is that why this new toxin possesses such an unfathomable property?’

This was the first thought that sprang to mind as he pondered the poison’s origins, and he felt it was highly probable. While his Splintering Poison Body had always been eccentric, its evolution had generally followed the records of the Malevolent Spirit Sect. Usually, the toxins it produced were designed to damage the physical body or the sea of consciousness, or perhaps induce hallucinations. Those were all within the realm of understanding.

He was aware that there were poisons in the world capable of eroding the Divine Sense, but this was the first time he had ever seen one capable of physically obstructing and suppressing it. Normally, such an effect required profound spells or high-level restrictions.

For a typical poison cultivator, such a toxin might actually be considered somewhat useless—a “chicken rib” of sorts. It would only be effective in very specific circumstances, and if used improperly, the user could easily find themselves suppressed by their own mist.

However, for Li Yan, it was entirely different. He was a soul cultivator who had emerged from the nightmare that was the Earth-Truth Realm. In the outside world, if used correctly, this Divine Sense-suppressing poison would make him a terrifying force, effectively giving him wings.

Li Yan began to conduct further tests within his cultivation chamber. Currently, he could only spread the mist across a radius of about ten feet. Such a small area could be easily bypassed by even a low-level cultivator.

However, this was a poison, not a trapping array. Li Yan’s focus was on how to silently ensure his opponent inhaled the toxin. For instance, he could blend this new poison with his Illusion Poison. Under the cover of the hallucinations, the victim would be even less likely to notice the suppression of their Divine Sense until it was too late.

Once a person was simultaneously afflicted by both the Illusion Poison and this Divine Sense-suppressing mist, they might find themselves trapped within a hallucination for an eternity, unable to find the path out.

Of course, merging two such distinct poisons would require meticulous refinement. This was why Li Yan dedicated every spare moment to researching the mist.

He named this poison: Night Pitch!

While Li Yan continued his secluded cultivation, a branch of the Guī Qù Lái Xī merchant association sat within a marketplace millions of miles away from the Broken Army Sect, in the Northern Pastoral Realm of the Immortal Spirit Realm.

Inside a third-floor room, the shopkeeper of this branch stood with a respectful expression, looking at the elegant and noble figure seated before him.

The woman possessed bright, captivating eyes and an air of high nobility touched with a hint of charm. However, at this moment, her face—fair as white jade—bore a look of extreme exhaustion.

The shopkeeper did not understand why his young mistress had traveled all this way from the headquarters, enduring the hardship of cross-realm teleportation, only to summon him immediately without a moment’s rest.

Su Hong was indeed exhausted. While in the lower realm, she had secretly sought news of that man, mobilizing the influence of her association across two worlds. Finally, she had gathered some heartening information, which led her to formulate a plan.

Once she had settled her affairs in the lower realms, she had returned to the Immortal Spirit Realm under the protection of two guardians. The spatial node passage she used was a secret held by Guī Qù Lái Xī, leading directly to the realm where their headquarters was located. It was never used for outsiders. To maintain the stability of that passage, the association spent money like water, paying a massive price every year for its upkeep. Otherwise, with the subtle shifting of spatial nodes, the path might vanish entirely within a year.

Even with such maintenance, traveling through that passage remained lethally dangerous. One had to resolve the problem of the natural laws rejecting a cultivator when moving between the different atmospheres of the mortal and immortal realms. All of this had to be handled within the passage, perfectly timed as one approached the node.

Upon reaching the headquarters, Su Hong spent only a few days with her parents before she grew impatient. Fabricating a reason, she immediately began teleporting toward the Northern Pastoral Realm.

To her embarrassment, while her excuse was plausible, she knew her parents were well aware of her private use of the association’s resources. When she left, they had said nothing, but the looks they gave her were quite strange. Su Hong had simply pretended not to see them, maintaining a facade of calm as she made her hasty departure.

“Shopkeeper Ni, some time ago, you reported that someone was inquiring about Guī Qù Lái Xī in a very remote area. I subsequently sent word back for you to investigate exactly who was asking. Is there a result yet?”

As soon as the shopkeeper entered, Su Hong signaled for her two guardians to step outside and began her questioning.

Shopkeeper Ni was taken aback. He hadn’t expected his young mistress to come all this way just for that.

“Mi… Miss, you came here specifically for that? But I only received your reply recently. Could those people be some sort of rivals?”

Shopkeeper Ni was surprised. He had received the inquiry some time ago, but the message had only stated that the young mistress wanted to know; it hadn’t carried any sense of urgency. Consequently, he had been busy with the primary affairs of the shop and hadn’t yet found the time to handle it. Why had the young mistress come in person?

One had to understand that while they had several shops in the Northern Pastoral Realm, those were few and far between given the sheer size of the region. Most matters were gathered and sent back to the headquarters in a unified report once they were resolved. Many people secretly inquired about Guī Qù Lái Xī, including their business rivals. Initially, the young mistress had only asked to collect all such inquiries, so he had simply recorded them and sent them off.

“Is someone secretly planning to move against us?”

Shopkeeper Ni’s heart tightened. Though the young mistress hadn’t said it—likely because his rank was too low—her personal arrival suggested a grave matter.

Hearing this, a look of realization flickered across Su Hong’s charming face. She then remembered that the news she had obtained in the lower realm was only a few years old in total. For messages to travel from the lower realm to the upper realm took significant time, unless it was an emergency so great that someone would risk their life to deliver it personally.

Usually, messages were gathered until a certain volume was reached before being sent in bulk to the headquarters. From there, messages for other realms would wait until a shipment of goods was scheduled for that specific region. Otherwise, even with the vast wealth of Guī Qù Lái Xī, they could not sustain the cost of such frequent, high-level teleportation.

Su Hong had rushed here regardless of the cost, spending spirit stones like water to teleport continuously. Only now did she realize that she had gotten ahead of her own information chain.