Chapter 2297

He Lingchuan immediately said to Dong Rui: "Over the past decade or so, the Demonic Beasts and the Heavenly Demons have been trying to sneak into the immortal's blessed land. Do you know how they usually do it? Actually, storming the blessed land isn't the best choice—it's too dangerous. To ensure safety and preserve spiritual energy, the Xian Sect usually chooses blessed lands that are sealed spaces. That is, once the entrance is sealed, outsiders can't get in, and insiders can't get out. Like Miao Zhantian directly invading the Upside-Down Sea— that was actually an exception, a desperate measure, because True Person Qianhuan is simply too strong, and other methods wouldn't work."

Dong Rui wondered: "Are they using clumsy methods, waiting by the stump for a rabbit?"

Yeah, the Heavenly Demons are the most experienced at digging blessed lands— Cangyan should learn from them.

Liu Qingdao explained: "Not bad. The most common method is either luring the snake out of its hole or waiting by the stump for a rabbit, waiting for the immortal or the Xian Sect inside the blessed land to come out. The immortal's blessed land needs to keep running, so it constantly consumes spiritual energy. Therefore, they must emerge from seclusion every so often to obtain spiritual energy or Xuan crystals, or else they would be drained to death."

Cultivators who died from depleted spiritual energy in minor blessed lands or minor worlds over the past three thousand years— who knows how many there were.

"If you want to wait by the stump for a rabbit, first you need to know the Xian Sect's entrance location, second you need to know their emergence time, third—" He Lingchuan raised his third finger, "you can't let them know you're already guarding the entrance, lying in ambush."

"Every sealed Xian Sect pays special attention to the safety of their blessed land's entrance. The number of such entrances can't be arbitrarily increased or decreased—it's not like you can just open as many as you want. Look at the prisoners' testimonies: after the Tianwu was captured, Qixia Sect closed one entrance for safety, which also matches what we've learned. So Qixia Sect now has only one entrance, and we've grasped its exact location— then—"

Dong Rui interjected: "Then there's only one thing left: before Qixia Sect emerges from seclusion, we must set up an ambush at their doorstep, without letting them notice, right?"

"Exactly right. Your last sentence is especially important." He Lingchuan snapped his fingers, then said to Liu Qingdao: "Yuan Xilin can project illusions to talk with you, which shows they've been closely monitoring the dynamics around Luohe and Xunyang Mountain— eighty percent likely using surveillance-type magical artifacts, divine abilities, or demonic beasts."

The Emperor is unfathomably profound; Liu Qingdao could only follow his lead and continue: "But Wei'an City's mountains and marshes can't monitor Xunyang Mountain, so we can't find Qixia Sect's surveillance method. Ah, right—"

He suddenly recalled: "Xu Anqing's disciples also mentioned a detail: although heavenly and earthly spiritual energy has revived for years, Qixia Sect has never emerged from their minor blessed land, because Yuan Xilin happens to be in a decade-long death seclusion, so Qixia Sect's disciples can only observe the outside world through water mirrors— that is, Xunyang Mountain and Wei'an City. But these disciples don't know what method the sect uses to monitor the outside."

"That thing exists outside the minor blessed land, very stable, effective for years." He Lingchuan immediately analyzed: "To satisfy all three conditions basically rules out birds, beasts, insects, fish, and similar demonic creatures; if it's a magical artifact, unless it can autonomously absorb free-floating spiritual energy from the air and use it in extremely minute amounts, otherwise regular maintenance would fail that seclusion."

During Qixia Sect's seclusion, they can't go out— who would maintain the external artifact? And the Spirit Gathering Array failed years ago due to the Black Dragon Totem, yet the water mirror still runs, showing its external support is very stable.

Dong Rui snapped: "No time— stop being cryptic."

"Not being cryptic— there are tens of thousands of miraculous things in the world; you can't deduce it by reasoning alone." He Lingchuan reasoned this far, but couldn't narrow it further: "Fortunately, there's still an informed person here we can ask."

Informed person?

Lingguang looked inside the snail toad— one, two, three, four, five… there aren't many people here either.

But his gaze then fell on the unconscious Xu Anqing: "You mean, Elder Xu?"

"Elder Xu is an immortal— though severely injured, how could he truly faint?" He Lingchuan produced a small incense burner from nowhere, took out a stick of incense, lit it, and placed the burner beside Xu Anqing's head, pressing against his Baihui acupoint.

The snail toad travels underground— this space definitely has no wind. Lonely smoke rose straight up, but after a few breaths it stagnated above Xu Anqing, turning into a wisp of mist.

Then the mist swiftly gathered, sinking into the shape of a small person.

Its build, features, and facial expression were exactly like the Xu Anqing lying on the ground— even his facial expressions were very lively.

So everyone saw its unhidden surprise.

This small person lowered its head to look at itself, then looked at everyone, and suddenly spoke:

"My Primordial Spirit hasn't left the body— what kind of divine ability is this?"

His soul and spirit are still in his body, in his sea of consciousness, not even having spare energy to spread outward.

He Lingchuan pointed to the incense mist above his head: "This is soul-stabilizing incense, also called soul-reviving incense, the kind lit in the first seven days after death."

Xu Anqing startled, his face slightly changing.

After the seventh day following death, some souls still have a chance to return near the body to take one last look at the mortal world. Like Fuliushan, who makes soul-stabilizing incense to help the deceased briefly meet family, for a final farewell or reminder— of course, this service costs money, and it's expensive.

He Lingchuan now produces the seventh-day incense, lights it, and it works on Xu Anqing— which means he's at death's door.

But Xu Anqing now has all his mind and spirit focused on fighting his injuries, with no energy left to condense his Primordial Spirit out of the body. He Lingchuan certainly won't tell him that he's using soul-stabilizing incense combined with the Great Expansion Heaven Pearl to enable Xu Anqing and these few people to converse.

It's not that Xu Anqing's Primordial Spirit left the body— rather, the Great Expansion Heaven Pearl created an illusion as a platform, pulling all of them into it to talk.

But this scene is too lifelike— Dong Rui and Lingguang both thought they were still in reality.

Only Liu Qingdao's face showed slight surprise, as he noticed a clue. After all, he's an elder of the Phantom Sect, and the blend of real and illusion has always been True Person Qianhuan's forte.

But he certainly won't expose it.

"Time is pressing— let's just say it straight." He Lingchuan's one sentence doused Xu Anqing's curiosity. Yeah, he's about to die, why bother remembering others' divine abilities?

"Although Elder Xu has his eyes closed resting, he should have heard ninety percent of our conversation." How powerful is an immortal's Primordial Spirit? Xu Anqing closing his eyes doesn't mean he lacks consciousness.

"If I'm not mistaken, although you're on death's door, you still retain a bit of counterstrike power." He Lingchuan looked at him and said: "Elder Xu, do you want to make one last stand for mutual destruction?"

What! Lingguang and Dong Rui both turned pale, while Liu Qingdao and He Lingchuan remained expressionless.