Chapter 402: Find Ding Huan (Bonus Chapter 10 for the Lost Orphan

She didn't know how long it took, but Wen Zhixi finally allowed herself to slowly calm down.

Since Ding Huan was nowhere to be found, she had to first refine the Jiulun Seal. That Immortal Marsh Beast hadn't died—if she refined the Jiulun Seal, she'd gain another attack method.

Wen Zhixi's spiritual sense easily penetrated the Jiulun Seal; as soon as she entered it, she sensed Ding Huan's Dao rhythm.

Immediately, her spiritual sense saw a pile of bloody fragments and shattered bones.

The Immortal Marsh Beast, which had worried her so much, had been torn apart into scraps inside the Jiulun Seal—had it not been for the black axe lying there, she might have doubted her own eyes.

Soon, Wen Zhixi understood what had happened.

Ding Huan had arrived first, found the Jiulun Seal, and refined its first layer of sealing array. Moreover, he had used Void Array Patterns within the Jiulun Seal to set up a Killing Immortal Array.

The Immortal Marsh Beast, for some reason, had never refined the Jiulun Seal, yet it had long been able to enter the Jiulun Seal and construct its own space within it.

Ding Huan knew the Immortal Marsh Beast had a space here, which was why he set up the Killing Immortal Array—so that if the beast fled here, it would be trapped and killed.

Clearly, Ding Huan had calculated that his Soul-Binding Exploding Needle couldn't kill the Immortal Marsh Beast.

He had moved step by step, planning each move in advance, making ample preparations, and only then killed the beast when it fled into the Jiulun Seal.

If she had acted on her own impulse and rushed straight in, neither she nor Ding Huan would have been a match for one swipe of the Immortal Marsh Beast.

In strength, thought, and tactics, Ding Huan far surpassed her.

Recalling how she had nearly perished before, and how Ding Huan had saved her—even helping her strip away the muddled Dao rhythms within her body—

How could such a powerful, resourceful man as Ding Huan have been ambushed by the Immortal Marsh Beast?

Even if he had been ambushed by the Immortal Marsh Beast, it wouldn't necessarily have killed him.

Suddenly, Wen Zhixi felt a sensation: Ding Huan was still alive.

If Ding Huan could die so easily, he never would have survived this long after all he'd done.

This thought gave Wen Zhixi new hope and cleared her mind considerably.

She quickly began refining the Jiulun Seal—not only to deliver it to Ding Huan, but also to find that sliver of her mother's spiritual soul.

Although the Jiulun Seal was also a top-tier spatial attack treasure, it still paled in comparison to Ding Huan's iron pot and Evening Drum, and was far inferior even to the Mirror of Life and Death.

Wen Zhixi planned to finish refining the Jiulun Seal, then use it to smash open this space.

Since the Jiulun Seal had originally belonged to Wen Zhixi's father, Wen Saint Luo Xu, her refinement of it was extremely smooth—even the lingering will of Wen Saint Luo Xu, sensing her spiritual sense refining the Jiulun Seal, dissipated completely.

……

As soon as Ding Huan landed, he sensed something was wrong; fortunately, without the suppression of the Immortal Marsh Beast, he immediately summoned his iron pot and landed atop it.

The next moment, the two Void Poison Wood Arrows rapidly stripped away his vitality, causing him to lose consciousness.

Boom!

Silver liquid splashed from the bottom of the iron pot—because Ding Huan had lost consciousness the instant he summoned the pot, the pot's defensive seals had not activated.

One drop of silver liquid landed on Ding Huan's leg, instantly hissing and sizzling.

In just a short time, that drop of silver liquid pierced through Ding Huan's leg bone; from the point where the drop fell, his bone began corroding outward continuously.

At this moment, Ding Huan felt nothing—his vitality had collapsed, and the two Void Poison Wood Arrows embedded in his body had long since vanished.

Waves of Poison Dao principles ravaged his body; as his final breath neared extinction, his Dantian's Great Universe began to stir.

Under the starry sky, the Milky Way rippled with patterns of Dao principles; the star systems rotated endlessly.

Ding Huan's consciousness did not sink further—he awoke within his Dantian, suffocating from the aura of imminent death, with only a vague concept remaining.

He was going to die.

His awareness began to scatter, scenes flashing through his mind.

A pair of bright eyes appeared before Ding Huan—her gaze clear, as if asking him: Why did you leave Earth?

That was Seeing Qu Yi. Only Seeing Qu Yi's eyes were untainted, pure to the point of breaking one's heart—and only she would ask why he left Earth.

I cannot die—not yet.

Even if I must die, I will not die here.

With his last will, Ding Huan activated the Great Universe Art; the first Great Universe Zhou Tian formed, halting the further collapse of his vitality.

As the Great Universe Zhou Tian continued to circulate, the area on Ding Huan's leg corroded by the silver droplet began slowly healing.

Vitality gradually gathered; a black mist swirled around Ding Huan's body, and beyond it, more Immortal Spiritual Qi was drawn in.

The iron pot slowly carried Ding Huan away from the silver pool to its edge.

Ding Huan showed no sign of awakening, yet his Dantian's Great Universe continued driving the Great Universe Art to circulate.

The black mist from the Void Poison Wood Arrows was forced out of Ding Huan's body, then drawn back in with each cycle of the Great Universe Zhou Tian.

One day, two days…

Four months passed in the blink of an eye; a violent roar erupted—the silver liquid in the pool beneath Ding Huan's iron pot instantly seeped deeper into the earth and vanished.

Wen Zhixi stared blankly at the abyss below—she had not yet fully refined the Jiulun Seal.

After refining the twelfth layer of the Jiulun Seal's seals, she put it away—and the first thing she saw upon doing so was a lower-grade Immortal Spiritual Vein.

This vein was what Ding Huan wanted; she naturally wouldn't leave it behind, and without hesitation, she collected it as well.

After taking the Immortal Spiritual Vein, she suddenly saw Ding Huan lying at the bottom of the abyss.

Ding Huan lay motionless atop an iron pot, his bloodstains long dried, his face deathly pale.

"Ding Huan?" Wen Zhixi no longer cared whether the depths below were safe—she leapt down and snatched him up in her arms.

No—though she felt no vitality from him, Ding Huan did not seem to have perished.

His body felt soft…

Not quite—he still had vitality, though it was extremely faint.

Excited, Wen Zhixi lifted Ding Huan and rushed upward; when she landed on the ground, she suddenly glanced at the iron pot in the deep pit.

Ding Huan, even in death, clung to this iron pot—it must not be an ordinary object.

After a moment's thought, Wen Zhixi set up several more array flags and pulled the iron pot out of the abyss.

She had found Ding Huan. Although she didn't know whether Ding Huan was alive or dead, the excitement in Wen Zhixi's heart was impossible to restrain.

She suddenly somewhat understood why her father had come to search for her mother.

It was a kind of dependence that was hard to put into words, or perhaps a kind of habit.

She and Ding Huan were only acquaintances, not even friends. Yet at the moment she found Ding Huan, a joy she had never felt before welled up inside her.

After a long while, Wen Zhixi finally managed to calm herself down.

Should she take Ding Huan and leave this place?

Wen Zhixi glanced at Ding Huan, whose vitality was still faint, and immediately changed her mind.

They absolutely could not leave this place.

With her abilities, taking Ding Huan and leaving this place would be seeking death.

This was the Myriad Void Swamp, not somewhere else.

Even her father had perished here. What ability did she have to take a person and leave the Myriad Void Swamp?

The outer perimeter of this place had the Void Trap-Kill Array that Ding Huan had set up, and there was also a water source inside.

The Immortal Marsh man-beast had built its cave dwelling here for a reason, surely.

But she had no heavenly materials or earthly treasures on her. How could she save Ding Huan?

After hesitating for quite a while, Wen Zhixi blasted the Immortal Marsh man-beast's cave dwelling into rubble, then simply set up a stone cave and sent Ding Huan inside.

The immortal spiritual vein she had drawn out earlier was now planted back beside Ding Huan by her.

She could sense that, although Ding Huan was still in a coma, he seemed to still be circulating his cultivation method.

Perhaps Ding Huan could wake up on his own; what she needed to do was carefully guard him by his side.

Staying in this place was far safer than braving the Myriad Void Swamp with Ding Huan.

At the very beginning, Wen Zhixi did not dare to be the slightest bit careless, observing Ding Huan's changes every single day.

A month later, she sensed that Ding Huan had not worsened. Not only that, Ding Huan's vitality aura was slowly strengthening, which filled her with even greater confidence.

At the same time, her heart was also filled with shock.

She had personally seen two Void Venom Wood Arrows shoot into Ding Huan's body, and yet Ding Huan could still survive. Just how powerful was Ding Huan's vitality?

Since Ding Huan was fine, she also needed to cultivate here for a period of time.

Everywhere here was mottled immortal spiritual energy, yet that low-grade immortal spiritual vein had no mottled Dao rhythm at all; its immortal spiritual aura was extremely pure.

Wen Zhixi was unable to set up an immortal array to filter out the mottled Dao rhythm the way Ding Huan could.

Having her not absorb the immortal spiritual energy with mottled Dao rhythm from the outside, and only absorb the immortal spiritual energy from this immortal spiritual vein, she could still manage.

To be on the safe side, Wen Zhixi did not look for another cave dwelling; she sat cross-legged and cultivated right beside Ding Huan.

After only a few Zhou Tian, Wen Zhixi stopped cultivating and stared at Ding Huan in even greater shock.

She actually felt that cultivating beside Ding Huan made her comprehension of the grand Dao of heaven and earth increasingly clear.

This was not just a little bit of clarity. As long as she kept cultivating, she would soon be able to return to the peak of Mysterious Immortal again.

This made Wen Zhixi even more certain that the Dao method Ding Huan cultivated was absolutely the strongest great Dao method she had ever seen, related to the laws of the universe and all things within it.

Wen Zhixi recalled how she had told Ding Huan earlier that she was a Spirit Immortal Dao Body, and had even said that if Ding Huan needed it, she was willing to dual-cultivate with him once.

Only now did she understand that her Spirit Immortal Dao Body, in the eyes of others, was something to be dreamed of, something they would stop at nothing to obtain.

Here with Ding Huan, her Spirit Immortal Dao Body really didn't amount to much.

With this kind of great Dao system, no wonder Ding Huan didn't care about her Spirit Immortal Dao Body.

After a long silence, Wen Zhixi finally gathered her emotions and began to focus wholeheartedly on circulating her cultivation method.

The Great Universe Art's Zhou Tian swept up immortal spiritual energy far too powerfully. In just half a day, the immortal spiritual energy swept over by the Great Universe Art had wrapped around Ding Huan.

Moreover, the ball of immortal spiritual energy slowly expanded, and in the end Wen Zhixi was also wrapped up within it.

With such clear great Dao laws and such dense immortal spiritual energy, Wen Zhixi went all out to raise her own strength even more frantically.