Chapter 1764: Why Are You Here

“What is that?” Ming Qi transmitted to her sister, her tone hesitant. At this distance, at the very edge of her Divine Sense, she could still see the winding Rainbow River. But a section of the water was no longer calm; spiritual light flickered from the depths as if something were suppressing the water.

“Could the place we’re looking for have such obvious symptoms, rather than needing to be searched for bit by bit?” Ming Yu transmitted back, her voice filled with uncertainty.

“Not necessarily. It could be a riverbed beast causing trouble. Let’s approach carefully!”

Half a stick of incense later, the sisters were fifty li from the disturbance. They traveled this final stretch with extreme caution. Their Divine Senses had already probed the water, but what they saw only increased their suspicion.

Unlike before, their Divine Sense couldn’t see the bottom of the river. That specific area seemed to be shrouded in a restriction. They couldn’t tell what was happening beneath it; they could only sense power leaking out from within.

“It’s not a beast. There’s an impact coming from beneath a restriction. What is down there?”

Under these circumstances, they couldn’t determine the cause, but a restriction appearing on the riverbed was a clear sign of something significant. However, as they drew within a hundred li, the spatial ripples above the water began to fade.

By the time they reached fifty li, the restriction beneath the water was still there, but the leaking ripples had vanished completely.

‘Does the restriction only erupt periodically? Or…’ Ming Qi was still pondering the cause.

Based on their investigation, there was nothing else besides the restriction itself. But as she thought, her face suddenly changed. She no longer cared about moving in concealment. Sensing something was wrong, she instantly transmitted to her sister.

“Dodge!”

She lunged forward with explosive speed. Her figure was no longer concealed; she was merely a thin yellow line cutting through the air. Ming Yu, a li behind her, felt the same sudden jolt of dread and heard her sister’s warning. She didn’t move forward to help but instead cut a semi-circle and retreated. Her movement was as fast as lightning.

“Whoosh! Whoosh!”

The air screamed as they broke the sound barrier, proof of how desperate their evasion was.

“Eh? So it’s you!” a voice rang out from the opposite bank.

A figure appeared abruptly on the glowing pebbles of the shore. His voice was filled with genuine surprise. As he spoke, Ming Qi and Ming Yu flickered and converged, standing side by side.

“How could you be here?” Ming Qi’s voice was equally shocked.

Standing across from them, looking surprised and undeniably handsome, was Yan Qingchen. The moment Ming Qi saw him, her face darkened.

She could have accepted finding beasts, ghosts, or even ancient cultivators here. But finding a fellow Huangqi Valley disciple in this secret realm was unacceptable. She and her sister had confirmed that this place showed no signs of previous entry. Their clue had been derived through the calculations of a powerhouse over a long period. So why was Yan Qingchen here?

As Ming Qi spoke, the surprise on Yan Qingchen’s face turned into a smile, though a murderous intent was already radiating from beneath it.

He had only found this spot beneath the water three days ago, following his own sect’s calculations. If he had relied on Divine Sense alone, he wouldn’t have had a twenty percent chance of finding it. He had spent days exploring the river and hadn’t seen a single soul or beast. He had concluded he was alone.

But after finding the spot, he had still set up defensive measures before trying to break the restriction. To avoid the noise of his work attracting trouble, he had used an isolation barrier. He feared that areas he hadn’t searched might hold beasts or other entities.

However, as he began to break the entrance, he found the methods his sect had prepared were failing one by one. Today, he had been forced to use his strongest card—the Dark Gold bowl. But this time, he didn’t use a blood sacrifice. He used a technique to channel the Yin and Yang of heaven and earth. This was a forceful method of breaking an array.

The moment he activated it, he realized the spatial ripples were immense. Even with his isolation barrier, power leaked out into the river. Fortunately, the barrier dampened it enough that only someone with a profound sense of the world or someone very close by would notice.

Still, he believed the chance of another being appearing was infinitesimal. Yet while he was working, a miniature array he had placed a hundred li away was triggered. His sect had spared no expense to provide four such arrays, which could even evade the detection of late-stage Void Refining cultivators. However, their range was only a hundred li. He had placed them on both banks and upstream and downstream.

He hadn’t thought they would be used; they were just there for peace of mind. He never expected the upstream array to be triggered—and twice in quick succession. He realized two beings were approaching fast. He slipped out and began a full search.

With his focused search, he soon found two faint figures coming from the source. Had he not been looking for them specifically, he wouldn’t have found them amidst the rainbow glow of the pebbles.

Seeing his first strike fail to kill them, Yan Qingchen’s heart chilled. The moment he struck, the ripples had exposed his position, so he revealed himself. But seeing the Ming sisters, he was as stunned as they were. He had marked these two during the selection when they entered the top ten. He had even considered them as candidates for his earlier sacrifice.

‘Are they following me?’ he wondered.

But he quickly realized he was wrong. The entrance he had used at the diamond light had vanished behind him. And he had absolute confidence in his Divine Sense. If they had been behind him in that tunnel, he would have known.

Moreover, their shock seemed genuine. This meant they had entered through another way.

‘There’s another entrance? And what are they doing here?’ Yan Qingchen’s mind raced. He hadn’t expected the secret place he had worked so hard to enter would have another path. And based on their arrival at the hall, they were alone, meaning they hadn’t needed a blood sacrifice to enter.

His smile widened. “So it’s you two, Sisters. You were concealing yourselves so well I thought you were beasts attacking. My apologies for the earlier strike!”

He bowed toward them from across the river, not mentioning why they were here, as if their presence was perfectly natural.

“So Brother Yan is here. We were just passing by,” Ming Qi said politely, though she was already transmitting to her sister.

“He is insidious. Be careful!”