Chapter 1791: An Elusive Sensation

Li Yan remained true to his word, allowing the Ming sisters to choose a medicinal herb he did not recognize. Observing the poorly concealed delight on Ming Yu’s face, it was evident she knew exactly what that herb was.

However, Li Yan did not press her for answers. Perhaps remaining ignorant of the herb’s function would allow him to feel more at peace with the exchange. Had he known its origin and found it to be excessively precious, it was hard to guarantee that he wouldn’t have developed other designs.

Having finally secured the Moon-Gazing Pure Immortal Grass, his primary focus shifted toward finding a way out of this place. He needed to leave Huangqi Valley as soon as possible and return to wake Senior Sister Bai!

The group explored the area once more but found nothing else. The Ming sisters showed visible disappointment; the true objective of their journey remained nowhere to be found.

“Senior, I believe we should exit the mountain crack and continue searching forward!” Ming Qi glanced toward the narrow opening in the stone wall that led back to the river. Li Yan merely nodded and flew toward it immediately.

If the courtyard was indeed a trap containing nothing of value, then the current discovery suggested that the exit must lie somewhere ahead. Having obtained the grass, Li Yan’s state of mind had shifted. He began to worry about the situation his avatar was facing in the outside world.

After exiting the mountain crack, they resumed their journey along the river. However, over the next half-day, they found nothing. Furthermore, the spiritual energy emanating from the river began to weaken significantly, indicating they were moving away from the main spiritual vein.

Finally, at midnight, beneath a sky reflected from above and filled with shimmering stars, the three arrived at the river’s end. Here, their path was once again blocked by a stone wall—the very end of the cavern.

At this wall, they felt that heart-palpitating sensation again, as if the other side led directly into the chaotic, unknown spatial void.

“Is this the limit of this space?” Li Yan stood on the riverbank, looking up at the stone wall that seemed to pierce into the sky for an immeasurable height. He placed a palm against the cold stone. A wave of yin-cold surged from the wall, threatening to penetrate his palm and reach his internal organs.

They had found only those medicinal herbs here. Could it be that those were the only treasures in this secret realm? Moreover, they had found no exit along the way, which filled Li Yan with a renewed sense of unease. Would they be forced to return to that courtyard? They had already searched that place meticulously too many times, and the passage that had brought them from the main hall had long since vanished.

“Rumble…”

Power surged from Li Yan’s palm, seeping directly into the stone wall and causing a muffled thunder to echo from within. The entire wall shuddered, and fine dust trickled down. Li Yan was merely using his power to probe the interior, not attempting to shatter it. This was the most direct method of sensing what lay beyond.

He carefully felt the feedback as his power pushed inward. After twenty breaths, his energy was blocked by a barrier as solid as iron and copper.

“It is approximately three hundred miles thick,” Li Yan murmured to himself, his brow furrowed in thought.

“I will go take a look!”

Ming Qi had not been idle; she had been probing the riverbed. The river stopped here as well, its waters seemingly seeping into the deeper depths of the earth. She had found nothing new, while Ming Yu was scouting the other bank, meticulously retracing their steps. They both felt that since they had reached the end, if anything was hidden, it was most likely in this vicinity.

Hearing Li Yan’s murmur, a light flickered in Ming Qi’s eyes. A trace of panic finally surfaced in her heart. Her clan had paid such a massive price to send the two of them here; a result like this was unacceptable. Although the Grand Elder had said it was only a possibility, the things they had verified here so far matched many of the Grand Elder’s divinations.

In their hearts, the sisters had already believed that the Immortal Underworld Phoenix inheritance would appear here. Previously, they had worried that the gray-robed elder might affect the inheritance. Now, they were entirely worried about whether an inheritance even existed. With no traces found, it felt as though they had reached a dead end.

“I’ll check it myself!” Without another word, Ming Qi used an Earth Escape art to sink into the stone wall, her movements appearing somewhat hurried.

Ming Yu saw this and didn’t need an explanation. She shifted her form and stood at the spot where her sister had entered, waiting quietly. The coordination between the two was silent and tight.

Li Yan cast a glance at the stone wall and then slowly walked away from the river’s end. He retraced his steps along the bank, searching inch by inch. He felt that since the master of this place had set up a restriction involving Spatial Severance at the entrance, there was no way they would find only a few medicinal herbs inside.

While those herbs were precious—especially the Moon-Gazing Pure Immortal Grass to him—that was only a personal perspective. Under normal circumstances, one wouldn’t set up such lethal defenses just to protect a small garden. Those herbs might not have been as rare in ancient times; it was only because they had been left untended for so long that their age had become so extraordinary.

Li Yan moved upstream, paying special attention to the cracks in the walls on both banks. Their previous discovery had come from a seemingly ordinary fissure. They had scanned the walls on their way here, and with three sets of eyes, they shouldn’t have missed anything.

However, Li Yan wanted to search again on foot. There was a difference between walking and flying. He also feared they might have missed a phantom array. Perhaps they were already trapped in a powerful illusion where reality and mirage were so perfectly interlaced that one could not distinguish between them.

As for Ming Qi, Li Yan suspected she would return empty-handed. She wouldn’t dare damage the final barrier of the mountain, so her search range was limited.

‘If there is truly no way out in the end, whether it be the barriers here or the walls of the courtyard, we will have to attempt to break through them…’ Li Yan thought. He didn’t know if there were other unimaginable places behind those barriers that gave him such a sense of extreme danger.

Once he determined that nothing more could be gained here, his only thought was how to get out. Seeing that the sisters were still searching, Li Yan suddenly used an Earth Escape art and entered the rock wall. Once inside, he dove rapidly toward the bottom of the river…

When Li Yan reappeared by the river, his expression was as calm as ever. Ming Yu’s Divine Sense swept over him before withdrawing. Seeing his lack of expression, she assumed he had found no leads and sighed inwardly.

Li Yan resumed his search along the bank. Ming Yu did not notice that in a certain segment upstream, where the spiritual energy was densest, the aura was now rapidly weakening.

As Li Yan walked along the bank, he suddenly froze. He felt a slight anomaly in this specific spot. After leaving the Ming sisters, he had not only opened all six of his senses but had also transformed his soul power into an invisible mist, allowing it to drift through the space.

The anomaly came from the cliff wall, or rather, the junction where the wall met the ground. Li Yan walked over and knelt down. He reached out with his fingers and began to clear away the debris at the narrow gap where the wall met the earth.

There were many fine grains of sand there, covering the seam. It was just a thin line parallel to the ground, filled with pebbles and sand as if it had been sealed shut.

After clearing a layer of sand with his fingers, Li Yan stopped. He crouched there with his eyes closed, sensing meticulously. It was a strange sensation. He felt as if he had encountered it somewhere before, but it was so faint that it seemed to be deliberately masked. It was an elusive feeling, as if he could almost grasp it, yet could not quite recall it.

Had he not scrutinized even the tiny seam between the mountain and the earth this time, he truly would have missed it. Even with his powerful Divine Sense and meticulous search, he had only felt a sliver of a sensation.

Li Yan was certain that even if the Ming sisters stood right here, they wouldn’t be able to detect it.

‘What is this perception? I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere, yet I can’t quite make it out…’

Li Yan opened his eyes. This seam followed the mountain wall, and since the mountains plunged deep into the earth, the seam stretched all the way from upstream, just like the river. However, Li Yan only felt this sensation in this specific inch-long section. The moment his Divine Sense moved away, the feeling vanished.