Chapter 1763: Ethereal Mists

The moment Liu Siyu was ejected, the other three saw her figure outside the light. In that instant, who knows where they found the strength, but despite their exhaustion, their bodies twitched and their eyes flared with a desperate longing for life…

But after stowing Liu Siyu away, the aura surrounding Yan Qingchen was no longer gentle. It became sharp and piercingly cold. If his sect ever learned of his actions, he would face the most severe punishment.

The white and black pillars from the dark-gold bowl could never have gathered the laws of the five elements; its essence was the Great Dao of Yin and Yang. The “five elements” the others had seen was merely an illusion, a facade to lure them in.

His true requirement was to have two Wood-attributed cultivators in the black pillar and two Fire-attributed cultivators in the white pillar. By utilizing their two different types of essence blood and his own assistance, he could break the second restriction of the Hidden Reef Array.

Liu Siyu and Qian were Wood-attributed, representing Yin, while the other two were Fire-attributed, representing Yang. These two elemental roots were the most common in Huangqi Valley; he only needed to find the right candidates. He needed people weaker than himself but with pure roots—at least Heaven-Grade. Furthermore, he needed people of average standing in the sect so their deaths wouldn’t trigger a major investigation.

But now, the power within the bowl was unbalanced because of Liu Siyu’s removal. This act could have jeopardized the plan his sect had meticulously crafted, perhaps even leading to immediate failure.

Yan Qingchen’s face grew colder. His hands moved like a torrential storm, his arms becoming a blur. He ignored the three struggling in the light like dying fish and barked a sharp command.

“Zhuo!”

Two breaths after Liu Siyu vanished, the remaining three fell into a total coma. Having lost their blood and magical power, their flesh and bone were now being rapidly consumed. They looked like ancient crones, their bodies shriveling until they were unrecognizable.

With his shout, the two beams from the bowl vanished. The dark-gold bowl suddenly moved, creating a sharp gust of wind as it slammed into the diamond light on the cliff!

Simultaneously, the three drained bodies fell like wet rags, tumbling unconsciously into the abyss below. Yan Qingchen didn’t even look back. His eyes were fixed on the diamond light. He waved his sleeve backward, and three motes of starlight shot out, striking the falling bodies instantly.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Three explosions echoed from below. Their bodies burst into clouds of blood mist, but strangely, the mist didn’t dissipate. It suddenly contracted back into three starry motes and hissed back toward Yan Qingchen’s back.

Yan Qingchen swept his sleeve again, stowing the motes along with seven or eight storage artifacts. This all happened in an instant. He wouldn’t leave a single trace of them behind, utterly destroying everything.

“Hum!”

The dark-gold bowl pressed against the diamond light and erupted with a golden glow. It began to spin rapidly into the cliff, becoming a whirring wheel. Seeing a deep hole being bored into the cliff where the diamond light had been, Yan Qingchen’s eyes sharpened, and he felt a slight relief.

Because he had lost Liu Siyu, the Yin and Yang forces could no longer be perfectly balanced. He had been forced to cut the ritual short and break the array early. Fortunately, the disaster he feared hadn’t materialized.

A hole had been bored into the Hidden Reef Array. Though the Dark Gold bowl’s power was insufficient, resulting in an entrance only as wide as a bowl, the array’s restriction had been temporarily forced open. In a few moments, the array would repair itself, but this was enough time for him to enter. Once inside, even without help to use the bowl, he would have a much better chance of finding the array’s core to escape.

He turned into a wisp of smoke and dove into the hole, following the bowl. Soon, the abyss returned to silence.

As the diamond light on the cliff faded and the hole began to smooth over, a faint breeze drifted through the pitch-black abyss…

A moment later, the light vanished entirely, and a blurry little tree solidified and appeared once more!

Six days later, at a certain point along the brilliant Rainbow River, the banks remained shrouded in darkness. The river flowed eternally like a galaxy fallen from the heavens.

“Sister, the end of the river is still beyond the reach of my Divine Sense! Every place we’ve searched looks exactly the same!”

Ming Yu withdrew her Divine Sense and stopped, looking around. This subconscious movement revealed her growing anxiety. Though their cultivation was intact, their Divine Sense was suppressed to within six thousand li, which they found deeply uncomfortable. They could only explore bit by bit. As time passed and they failed to find the end of the river, it felt as though they might search forever. They saw the same scenery every second of every day.

At first, as women, they had been filled with wonder and admiration for this jewel-like river. But after so long, even the most beautiful repeating scenery became monotonous and dull. It was even starting to make them feel dizzy.

“Where we first entered was near the source, which should be an exit sealed by a formation in this space. It seems we’ve already saved the time of searching the other end of the river. No matter how long it is, we will finish searching eventually. At worst, we simply won’t leave!” Ming Qi said calmly.

Her impressive figure didn’t stop; she continued to fly slowly forward, still searching meticulously. Seeing this, Ming Yu realized her own mental fortitude was still lacking compared to her sister’s. But she couldn’t be blamed for being anxious; the hopes of many were resting on their shoulders. Now that they had found this space but failed to find results, her heart was bound to waver.

Seeing her sister probe the depths of the riverbed again, Ming Yu calmed herself and scanned the distance once more. They took turns scanning to avoid any oversights.

This time, shortly after Ming Yu sent out her Divine Sense, her expression shifted.

“Sister!”

She used voice transmission this time, but she only said those two words.

Ming Qi, who was mentally linked to her, looked downstream instantly the moment she heard her sister. She didn’t need an explanation to know what Ming Yu meant. Her own Divine Sense became ethereal and faint as she probed forward.

A moment later, Ming Qi didn’t use transmission but spoke aloud.

“That ripple isn’t a Divine Sense. The other party shouldn’t be able to find us. It seems the Divine Sense of any cultivator there is also suppressed to ten thousand li!”

They had sensed a spatial ripple, but it wasn’t a Divine Sense probe. It was a persistent, strange vibration. This meant that even if someone was there, they didn’t know the sisters were present.

“It must be someone or a beast casting a spell!” Ming Yu added. Her tone was a mix of vigilance and excitement. After so many days, something new had finally happened. Even if it was unknown, it made her happy. However, while they could sense the spatial ripple, they only knew a general area was abnormal; they couldn’t tell exactly what was happening.

“I’ll leave a mark here. We’ll temporarily skip this section and go take a look!” Ming Qi was decisive.

She waved a hand, and a speck of light shot into the shimmering pebbles. She was meticulous; if the investigation yielded nothing, they would return and search this section so nothing was missed and no time was wasted.

After confirming the mark, the two sisters’ figures became illusory. Combined with the brilliant light from the pebbles, they soon blended into the glow and vanished.

They flew one after the other in concealment, maintaining a distance of one li. This allowed them to support each other quickly in danger while not hindering their ability to perform a pincer attack. In their concealed state, they even stopped communicating via voice transmission, maintaining absolute silence as they traveled.

Sometimes, one of them only needed a thought for the other to sense it. Their coordination was many times more seamless than any normal team.

Ming Qi led the way. Their speed was not slow this time, and they soon covered four thousand li. Just as they were approaching the location, Ming Qi stopped abruptly.