Chapter 928

On the third evening, Han Li, who had been in deep meditation, finally opened his eyes.

He looked up at the dark sky, flipped his palm, and a moonstone appeared in his hand.

He tossed the stone into the air, and a milky-white glow spilled down, illuminating the nearby peach grove with bright light.

Han Li rose silently, pulled out a red coral slab several feet in size, placed it beneath a peach tree, then withdrew a jade box, opened its lid, and revealed a single-stemmed, thirteen-leaf spirit herb, about an inch tall. The herb glowed faintly with a misty white radiance, emitting a soft aurora—this was the Nishang Grass, which he had tried to accelerate countless times.

"Is this your plan?" asked the Great Expansion Divine Lord, still baffled, as Han Li transplanted the Nishang Grass onto the coral.

He had seen Han Li use this herb to feed the Golden-Consuming Insects, with astonishing results—but now, pulling it out again left him deeply puzzled.

Han Li chuckled softly at the question:

"This herb has another name: 'Lure Demon Grass.' You need not say more, Elder—you should already understand my intent."

"Lure Demon Grass! So you mean to…" The Great Expansion Divine Lord's voice grew suddenly clear.

"Exactly. Six days from now, that smaller Hao Yang Bird will be let out for fresh air. Then, hehe…" Han Li sneered.

…

Fang Chu was a Foundation Establishment mid-stage cultivator of the Yueyang Palace. At this level, there were surely eight or a thousand such cultivators in the entire palace—he should have been an utterly insignificant figure.

But in truth, the opposite was true: not only other Foundation Establishment cultivators, but even Core Formation senior peers treated Fang Chu with utmost courtesy, never regarding him as a junior. Whenever the palace distributed benefits, Fang Chu was always the first among Foundation Establishment disciples to receive them.

These privileges made Fang Chu thrive within the Yueyang Palace. Yet despite his inner pride, he knew it was solely due to his assigned duty—he was the one specifically tasked with tending the smaller Hao Yang Bird.

He had been chosen because he possessed a rare innate ability to understand the speech of avian spirit birds, a talent no one else could replicate. Otherwise, given the Hao Yang Bird's rarity, he would never have been entrusted with its care.

After all, "tending" the spirit bird also meant being able to command it to some degree—a matter of immense significance.

The spirit bird under his care was low in cultivation, yet still stronger than late-stage Core Formation cultivators, nearly rivaling Nascent Soul-level beings. No wonder other cultivators feared him so deeply.

He had been tending spirit birds for over thirty years, and had grown thoroughly accustomed to it.

The only trouble was that, whether meditating or cultivating, he had to remain constantly with the spirit bird—even the brief half-day when the bird was allowed to fly freely for fresh air required him to halt his own practice and secretly follow at a distance, lest any accident occur.

Yet Fang Chu was never worried about this.

The entire Ten Thousand Li Yueyang Mountain Range was under Yueyang Palace control—what could possibly go wrong?

As he mused calmly, on this day, Fang Chu followed the Hao Yang Bird as it flew out of its aviary early in the morning, trailing far behind.

The Hao Yang Bird was not large, about ten feet in length, but its tail feathers accounted for over half its body. From afar, it resembled a giant crimson peacock—but no peacock in the world possessed such vivid, fiery plumage.

The spirit bird clearly felt exhilarated; as soon as it passed the palace's restrictions, it flapped its crimson wings, circling and soaring endlessly in the air, utterly unaware that someone followed behind.

Normally, Fang Chu could never have concealed his presence from the Hao Yang Bird's spiritual sense—but before leaving, he had already affixed to his body a special Concealment Talisman, crafted exclusively for him by the palace. Thus, despite his shallow cultivation, he could safely remain undetected.

Watching the bird emit clear, joyful cries, Fang Chu smiled knowingly.

Having spent so long with the spirit bird, he understood perfectly: the Hao Yang Bird was in a state of extreme delight. Clearly, today's outing would ensure the bird remained calm and content for the rest of the half-month.

Thus, the Hao Yang Bird circled leisurely above the Yueyang Palace for a long while, then changed course and began flying outward.

Fang Chu paid no mind; according to the bird's usual habits, it would circle a vast radius of a hundred li around the palace before returning contentedly, so he followed calmly and slowly.

But this time, after flying only thirty li, an accident occurred.

The previously exuberant Hao Yang Bird suddenly halted its wings, then changed its cry—sharp, piercing, and mournful.

Hearing this cry, Fang Chu froze. Before he could comprehend what was happening, the Hao Yang Bird flared its wings, erupting in a burst of several-foot-tall crimson flames, veered sharply, and shot through the air. In a few flashes, it became a massive fireball, streaking hundreds of zhang away.

This sight stunned Fang Chu, then filled him with utter terror.

Regaining his senses, he frantically pulled a jade tablet from his person, pouring all his spiritual power into it while simultaneously emitting a strange, bird-like call, trying to summon the Hao Yang Bird back.

But the Hao Yang Bird in the distant flames seemed to hear the call—yet hesitated slightly, then let out even louder, more shrill cries, and vanished without looking back toward the horizon.

Seeing this, Fang Chu's face turned instantly ashen. He hovered motionless in midair, utterly at a loss.

But moments later, he remembered something, yanked a transmission talisman from his storage pouch, shouted frantically into it, then hurled it into the air without hesitation—it instantly ignited into a streak of fire, shooting straight toward the Yueyang Palace.

He gritted his teeth, clenched the jade tablet tightly, and flew after the direction where the Hao Yang Bird had disappeared.

Whether or not he could catch it, he could not simply wait here—should any of his ancestral masters encounter him, he would face severe punishment.

As Fang Chu surged forward in pursuit, chaos erupted simultaneously across other spirit beast zones in the Yueyang Mountain Range.

In the northern mountains, several low-grade Yueyang Palace disciples desperately strained to hold back giant, vulture-like beasts beneath them, trying to forcibly restrain these low-grade spirit beasts as they suddenly lost control and twisted violently, as if determined to charge toward a single direction. Soon, all were drenched in sweat, yet the spirit beasts still thrashed wildly, desperate to break free.

In a hidden tree hollow at the mountain's edge, a masked cultivator clad in yellow-green robes, resembling a withered tree, pressed a giant green-glowing hand firmly onto a black spider, barely a foot long. Watching the beast's snarling, furious expression, his eyes flickered with uncertainty.

At Nantian Peak, Yueyang Palace, within a secret hall concealed by restrictions, a white-haired old woman in purple robes stroked the Hao Yang Bird resting before her. It looked identical to Fang Chu's, only slightly larger.

The old woman clearly sensed that the spirit bird beneath her had, without warning, become agitated and restless. Had she not continuously cast calming spells, the bird would have flown straight out of the secret hall. A strange expression crossed her face as she fell into thought.

…

Fang Chu had chased relentlessly, expending vast amounts of spiritual power, but long ago lost sight of the Hao Yang Bird. Yet because he possessed the jade tablet that sensed the bird's location, he was not afraid of losing its trail within the Yueyang Mountain Range.

But as he flew onward, he discovered something utterly shocking: beneath the mountains, numerous low-grade spirit beasts had burst from their deeply hidden dens, racing frantically in the same direction as the fleeing Hao Yang Bird—running, leaping, sprinting without pause.

Within moments, a substantial beast tide had formed, including rare spirit beasts normally impossible to find in the mountains. The high-grade spirit beasts and flying avian beasts had long since been purged by the palace's high-level cultivators, so he need not fear them.

Yet even so, the sudden, uncontrolled frenzy of the beast tide and the Hao Yang Bird's disappearance filled Fang Chu with dread and deep unease.

Meanwhile, in a hidden valley tens of thousands of li away, Han Li sat cross-legged on the ground, before him the Nishang Grass planted on the coral, bathed in crimson aurora. Six of its spirit leaves had unfurled, glowing with mysterious radiance.

Han Li was not staring at the Nishang Grass. Instead, his eyes were half-lidded, fixed on the scene beyond the peach grove, his expression utterly blank.

Outside the restrictions, dozens of nearby low-grade spirit beasts had gathered, hurling themselves against the outer barrier, desperate to break into the peach grove and devour the six-leaf Nishang Grass. The sheer number of low-grade spirit beasts in the Yueyang Mountain Range surprised Han Li.

Yet despite their numbers, Han Li paid them no heed. Instead, he closed his eyes and extended his spiritual sense toward the Yueyang Palace, carefully scanning.

According to his estimation, the Nishang Grass's power was ideally suited to lure Level Seven spirit beasts. The Hao Yang Bird, as a spirit bird, flew faster than most magic treasures—so it should arrive here soon.

Not long after, Han Li's icy expression changed—he suddenly opened his eyes.

He formed a hand seal, uttered a low hum, and cast several spell incantations, activating the outer illusion array.

A misty, milky-white fog rose from the ground, instantly shrouding the entire bamboo grove in partial concealment.

At that moment, a wild beast's roar and a clear, bird-like cry echoed simultaneously from the east and west.

A massive yellow light orb and a huge crimson fireball flew toward Han Li's valley from opposite directions—both clearly targeting him.

Seeing this, Han Li softly exclaimed, a flicker of surprise crossing his face.

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