Chapter 826: Spiritual Sense into a Thousand

The moment the light and shadow transformed by the Confucian scholar appeared, it vanished once again from everyone's sight. Wang Wang Tiangu and the others were all stunned, each wearing a strange expression.

Wei Wei Wuya fell silent for a moment before asking:

"Sect Master Wang, is this person truly the Master Cangkun Shangren of the past? However, he only has his essence soul remaining; even if he truly is the man who once dominated the world, he is not to be feared now. Was it he who informed you about the Spirit-Sprouting Garden?"

"To a certain extent, this person can be considered Master Cangkun Shangren, yet also not. But the matter of the Spirit-Sprouting Garden was indeed learned from his own mouth." Upon hearing that the spatial rift was merely a new occurrence, the Ghost Spirit Sect Master's expression relaxed. He answered Wei Wei Wuya's question with his usual composure.

"What is the meaning of this? Fellow Daoist, there is no need to keep me in suspense." Wei Wei Wuya's expression darkened slightly, revealing his displeasure.

"Brother Wei has misunderstood. The essence soul in the scroll we just saw is actually just the remnant soul of a manifestation of the former Master Cangkun Shangren. This manifestation was injured by restrictions while exploring the Fallen Devil Valley, and its physical form was destroyed, which is why Master Cangkun Shangren placed it into this scroll magic treasure, refined from Soul-Nurturing Wood fragments, to rest and recover. However, the true Master Cangkun Shangren has long since been dead for who knows how many years. Aside from some memories, this strand of remnant soul has gained its own autonomy. It would not be inappropriate to say it is a different person now." The Ghost Spirit Sect Master spoke unhurriedly and leisurely.

Wei Wei Wuya appeared quite surprised upon hearing this.

Wang Wang Tiangu pursed his lips, a bitter smile appearing in his heart. He did not know if he was depressed because he hadn't discovered the secret of the scroll, or because he had guessed wrong again.

"So that is how it is. It seems you have reached some agreement with this remnant soul, which is why it told you about the Spirit-Sprouting Garden. However, that is irrelevant; it has nothing to do with me. As long as you allow me to enter the Spirit-Sprouting Garden, I will not inquire about any agreements you have made with it. At my age, I only wish to enter the Nascent Soul stage and ascend to the Spirit Realm." Wei Wei Wuya nodded and said coldly.

"Brother Wei is indeed a reasonable man. That is for the best. Very well! Since this spatial rift appeared only by chance, let us set off!" The Ghost Spirit Sect Master smiled slightly. He then signaled for a disciple to step forward and clear the path once more.

The Ghost Spirit Sect disciple's face was somewhat pale, but he said nothing as he bypassed the spatial rift in front and continued forward.

Wei Wei Wuya walked slowly, his expression unreadable. The others from the Ghost Spirit Sect followed closely behind.

The group continued to walk toward the clearly visible, massive altar.

"What is going on? Your Flying Mouse has actually lost control!" Standing on a glacier covered in thick ice, Han Li looked up at the blood-colored glow that had appeared in the sky again, his expression gloomy as he spoke to Zi Ling beside him.

Not far behind him, a massive ice fissure over twenty zhang wide stood prominently. Han Li had just passed through this fissure to sneak back into the Inner Valley.

Looking around, ice and snow covered everything, and bone-chilling, fierce winds whistled past. Yet Han Li stood motionless in his thin green robe, appearing completely indifferent to the cold wind.

"I don't know. My Flying Mouse was fine outside, but as soon as we came out of the ice fissure, it suddenly went mad. Fortunately, I put it away early, otherwise, I don't know what kind of trouble would have occurred. Even now, inside the spirit beast pouch, it remains incredibly violent." Zi Ling's brows were tightly locked, and she appeared equally bewildered.

Han Li pondered for a moment, then suddenly patted his storage pouch with one hand. A small swarm of Gold-Devouring Beetles rushed out, buzzing as they formed a small cloud in the air, hovering motionless above Han Li's head.

Han Li urged them with his spiritual sense, and the small cloud of insects flew back into the spirit beast pouch as if they were an extension of his own arm, showing no signs of losing control.

Han Li rubbed his chin, his gaze flickering. He immediately patted another spirit beast pouch, and a streak of black light shot out, circled once, and landed a few feet in front of Han Li.

The light faded, revealing a black monkey a few inches tall. It was the Soul-Devouring Beast.

At this moment, it yawned, blinked its eyes, and looked at Han Li in a daze, appearing as if it had just woken up.

Han Li watched the beast for a long while, then expressionlessly flicked his large sleeve, sending out a wave of green light.

A moment later, the green light flashed, and the Soul-Devouring Beast vanished without a trace.

"Since your Flying Mouse has lost control, regardless of the reason, we can only rely on ourselves to find the people from the Ghost Spirit Sect. Fortunately, since we have entered the Inner Valley, we shouldn't be too far from them. I will use my divine ability to search and see if I can find their tracks. You can help me stand guard for now." After pondering for a while, Han Li made a decision and said to Zi Ling.

The fact that the Gold-Devouring Beetles and the Soul-Devouring Beast showed no abnormalities in the Inner Valley made him feel relieved. After all, one was a rare insect, and the other was a mutated, ferocious beast; naturally, they were very different from ordinary spirit beasts.

However, Han Li naturally did not know that the Thousand-Mile Oriole prepared by Marquis Lord Nanlong could also remain safe and sound in the valley. Meanwhile, the spirit birds borrowed by the Mulan Dharma Priests were in the same state of loss of control as Zi Ling's Flying Mouse.

The reason for this naturally involved some secrets of the Inner Valley.

"Then everything will have to rely on Brother Han's divine abilities." Zi Ling bit her lower red lip slightly, having no choice but to say this.

Han Li nodded, sat down cross-legged calmly, and closed his eyes slightly.

A moment later, his body glowed with intense spiritual light, and he was enveloped in a green radiance, giving him an air of ethereal detachment.

Zi Ling stayed quietly to the side, her clear eyes, like spring water, fixed on Han Li's ordinary face without blinking.

To be honest, regarding the man before her, Zi Ling herself couldn't quite articulate what kind of feelings she held.

To say they were purely friends didn't seem quite right. At the very least, when she occasionally caught the look of amazement in Han Li's eyes regarding her beauty, she felt a subtle sense of secret joy and excitement in her heart.

To call him a confidant was even further from the truth. Although she and Han Li had shared life-and-death journeys, to this day, Han Li had never truly opened his heart to her. Instead, he seemed to intentionally keep his distance, showing no intention of taking things further.

In reality, given Han Li's current cultivation and status, if he were willing to propose to her, she wouldn't know whether she would accept or refuse. When she inadvertently learned from a woman surnamed Song of the Falling Cloud Sect that Han Li already had a cultivation partner named Nangong Wan, she felt more of a sense of loss, as if something she had long set her sights on had been snatched away by someone else.

Watching Han Li's face flickering in the green light, Zi Ling's expression was dazed, her mind wandering with wild thoughts.

Han Li, currently in meditation, was naturally unaware of Zi Ling's thoughts. However, he had already released his powerful spiritual sense, rapidly searching everything within a hundred-mile radius to see if any Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators were present. But after a while, he found nothing.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly. Unwilling to give up, he expanded his spiritual sense even further, covering a range of nearly two hundred miles. But after a busy effort, no other cultivator's aura appeared.

Han Li pondered for a moment, then suddenly unhooked the spirit beast pouch filled with Gold-Devouring Beetles from his waist and cast it out. After forming a hand seal with both hands, over a thousand Gold-Devouring Beetles surged out from the pouch, transforming into a golden cloud of insects.

"Go!"

Han Li opened his eyes, raised his hand, and struck a green magic art onto the insect cloud.

With a buzz, the insect cloud scattered, transforming into clusters of golden flowers that shot off in all directions.

When Han Li closed his eyes again, his body began to glow with dazzling light. Seeing this, Zi Ling revealed a look of surprise, wondering what great divine ability Han Li was about to display.

At this moment, Han Li had pushed his Great Expansion Art to the limit, forcibly splitting his spiritual sense into over a thousand divisions. Aside from a few divisions left on his body for protection, the rest of the divisions quickly caught up with each Gold-Devouring Beetle, temporarily attaching themselves to them and spreading out in all directions.

With the eyes of the Gold-Devouring Beetles, he no longer needed to sense the aura of cultivators; he began to search bit by bit through every area that might be the next marker.

Naturally, many encountered spatial rifts and were swallowed, or became trapped in restrictions and could not return. But Han Li's spiritual sense divisions were formless, and since they were attached to the beetles, he abandoned the attached beetle as soon as he saw the situation was bad, allowing the division to return to Han Li's side. Even so, over a dozen divisions were trapped or destroyed before they could escape.

When encountering such situations, Han Li decisively severed his connection to those divisions to avoid implicating the others.

However, every time he abandoned a division, Han Li's face would inevitably turn a shade paler.

But fortunately, his spiritual sense was truly powerful to the extreme. The loss of these divisions was not enough to hurt his foundation, and his expression returned to normal in a moment.

Relying on the sky-filling search of over a thousand Gold-Devouring Beetles, after a long time, Han Li finally discovered a clue and found the route the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators were taking.

He immediately urged all the divisions with his divine sense, and the thousand Gold-Devouring Beetles immediately turned around and flew back.

When the last Gold-Devouring Beetle entered the pouch, Han Li opened his eyes with a cold sneer on his lips.

"Let's go! I've found their tracks."

As soon as he finished speaking, Han Li stood up and shot into the sky as a streak of green light. Seeing this, Zi Ling joyfully transformed into a streak of light and followed closely behind.

Not long after, Han Li and Zi Ling appeared above a pile of rubble.

Han Li stared at the empty pit below, a strange expression on his face.

"It seems this place is the location of the next marker. If I remember correctly, there are only two markers left before we can find the location of the Spirit Candle Fruit. The next location is easy to find; it is the perfect opportunity for us to catch up with the people from the Ghost Spirit Sect." Han Li said calmly, flicking his large sleeve. A ball of white light shot out from his sleeve and landed a few feet in front of him; it was the Wind-Riding Chariot.

"Get on this chariot. Let's speed up and catch up with them below! Your escape speed is too slow. Only by increasing our speed several times is it possible to catch up with them." Han Li ordered Zi Ling in an unquestionable tone.

"Increase speed several times? The spatial rifts in this Inner Valley are countless. Wouldn't that be too dangerous!" Zi Ling was startled, her expression changing.

(Web) ===== CHAPTER 827 =====