Chapter 218: Flying Body, Tracing Tracks; The Upper Cultivator Descends Again

After weighing the options repeatedly, Lu Yuan focused his mind on one of the Heavenly Gang Great Divine Abilities.

【Flying Body, Tracing Tracks】:

This is a technique of spatial leaping, capable of hiding within Heaven and Earth, roaming within the four seas; it cannot be known, cannot be investigated, cannot be observed, existing in the world yet unseen by the world.

"Spatial leaping. This should be even more formidable than any escape technique or instant teleportation. With this Supernatural Power, let alone a Nascent Soul Great Cultivator, even a Transformation Spirit Giant might not necessarily be able to keep me here."

"This is the one!"

Once he dealt with the Array Hall Elder sent down by True Monarch Huanglong, he would have to ascend to the Upper Realm via the Reception Array and face this Nascent Soul Great Cultivator directly.

Although he believed that with the effect of the powerful Supernatural Power 'Fetal Transformation', it was almost impossible for the other party to see through his true origins, one must always be prepared for any eventuality; possessing a trump card for life-saving and escape was extremely necessary.

Flying Body, Tracing Tracks was a Great Divine Ability of the same level as Nine Breaths Serving Qi, and lighting it up also required consuming 100,000 points of Luck Power. After careful consideration, Lu Yuan did not hesitate much and immediately communicated with the Heavenly Book with his mind:

"Light up, Flying Body, Tracing Tracks!"

Boom—!

The Heavenly Book in his mind vibrated with a hum, blooming with boundless radiance.

As if the sky were collapsing and the earth sinking, a roar like the very beginning of Heaven and Earth suddenly erupted in his mind. The Heavenly Book was like a great sun, and a surging, torrential wave of profound information poured forth crazily, like a river bursting its banks.

In this instant, even though Lu Yuan had been prepared, he felt all his perceptions vanish under the impact of such information and enlightenment; his body, Dharma Power, and divine sense—everything—fell into chaos, entering a state of transcendent self-forgetfulness.

Within his consciousness, it was as if chaos were first opening; unspeakable insights surged forth rapidly, and the sound of chanting like great bells and drums resonated in his heart, plunging Lu Yuan into a state of sudden enlightenment, as if he had been anointed with wisdom.

A long, long time passed.

The sun rose and the moon set; the sky darkened and brightened.

Not until the third sunrise, with morning light casting upon the front of the great hall, did Lu Yuan slowly open his eyes.

⊙co

His eyes were filled with joy and delight. He immediately flew out of the great hall, and with a single thought, an invisible ripple flashed rapidly across his body. Then, as if he had broken through some kind of restraint, his entire person entered another realm of Heaven and Earth.

In an instant, an unimaginably immense pressure surged over like a tidal wave, wrapping him in layers, as if he had directly entered the depths of a ten-thousand-foot-deep sea; it was terrifying beyond compare.

This spatial pressure was omnidirectional, as if a person had fallen into a ten-thousand-foot-deep sea; even if one's body were forged from refined iron, it would be reduced to iron slag in an instant. However, a miraculous, clear radiance emanated from Lu Yuan's body, completely resisting this terrifying pressure.

At this very moment, after activating 【Flying Body, Tracing Tracks】, the world in Lu Yuan's eyes had completely changed.

Bizarre and kaleidoscopic—truly bizarre and kaleidoscopic.

Lu Yuan was still above the Dao Palace, but everything in his eyes was no longer flat. Before him was a strange, wide-angle world; the halls, the peaks, everything was completely distorted and deformed. Although they were right before his eyes, they seemed infinitely far away.

This feeling was as if the entire world had undergone a massive folding, and he was hiding in the interlayer created by the spatial folding, observing this world.

Feeling like an outsider, situated within the folded space, and sensing the massive consumption of his mind and Dharma Power, Lu Yuan took a light step forward as if struck by a flash of inspiration.

Swish!

The next moment, the void inverted. His vision blurred suddenly, and the Heaven and Earth before him changed abruptly; his entire person appeared in a desolate wilderness as if he had shifted through the void.

Hm?

Surprised, Lu Yuan immediately deactivated the Flying Body, Tracing Tracks Supernatural Power, then ascended to a high altitude to determine his direction.

He soon discovered that his current location was actually over a hundred miles away from Xiantai Mountain!

Under the activation of Flying Body, Tracing Tracks, in the blink of an eye, he had crossed a hundred miles of space as if teleporting.

Moreover, this distance did not seem to be the limit!

"Good, good, good. With this Supernatural Power in hand, even if I can't defeat a Great Cultivator of the Upper Realm, I can definitely run away."

Lu Yuan was full of spirit:

"And the effects of this Supernatural Power go far beyond this."

The next instant, he faced the direction of the Dao Palace and moved his mind again. His entire person instantly leaped into the void, and when he reappeared in the blink of an eye, he was already near Xiantai Mountain.

Lu Yuan's gaze flickered, and while maintaining the state of merging with the void, he walked straight toward a giant rock on a verdant mountain peak.

However, just as he was about to collide with that giant rock, his entire person suddenly merged into it like a water droplet into the sea, passing directly through the stone as if he had activated a Stone Penetration technique.

"Very good, this Supernatural Power also possesses the effects of Stone Penetration and Earth Travel."

While pondering, Lu Yuan, still maintaining his state of merging with the void, reached out a hand and pointed a finger. A streak of Sword Qi shot out suddenly, splitting the giant rock on the mountain peak in two.

His eyes brightened. Without a word, he turned back and arrived above a side hall of Xiantai Mountain, then transmitted his voice via divine sense:

"Fellow Daoist Qin, I have something to ask. Please come out for a meeting."

Within a few breaths, Qin Ruoning's figure drifted out from the side hall, looking around with a strange expression, slightly puzzled.

At this moment, Lu Yuan, still maintaining the Flying Body, Tracing Tracks Supernatural Power and merged with the void, was only a few feet above her, yet Qin Ruoning, a Golden Core Real Person, seemed completely unaware, asking in confusion:

"Fellow Daoist Lu?"

Lu Yuan's eyes flashed. He did not speak, but suddenly flicked his finger, and a streak of Sword Qi pierced through the void, shooting toward her.

"Hm?"

Qin Ruoning was startled. As she lightly raised her fair hand, a water-blue seal flew out with a roar, crushing the sword light in an instant and striking the spot where the sword light had been fired. The power swept in all directions, causing the void to tremble.

Although Qin Ruoning's seal was bombarding the void right in front of him, Lu Yuan, in the state of Flying Body, Tracing Tracks, did not feel any impact. He immediately withdrew the Supernatural Power, revealed his figure, and smiled:

"Fellow Daoist Qin, it is I. Please show mercy."

Although Qin Ruoning knew it was Lu Yuan, a look of shock and suspicion still flashed in her eyes:

"What kind of technique is this? It can completely hide your figure; even at such close range, my divine sense cannot sense you?"

After a cultivator forms a Golden Core, their spiritual sense transforms into divine sense, and divine sense probing becomes the strongest detection method for the vast majority of Golden Core Cultivators.

Normally, a Golden Core Cultivator cannot completely evade the divine sense probing of a cultivator of the same cultivation level, not to mention that she had specifically practiced a 'Divine Nether Sensing Great Law', making her divine sense perception extremely keen. A single sweep could detect any movement or Dharma Power aura within a range of over ten miles, yet Lu Yuan was so close just now and she had no sense of him at all—it was simply inconceivable!

Lu Yuan did not need to reveal the truth and smiled: "Actually, it's nothing. This is my latest improved invisibility Dharma Technique; it seems the effect is quite good."

Qin Ruoning exclaimed:

"This technique is indeed extraordinary. In the Upper Realm, whether used for exploring secrets or lurking for assassinations, it can absolutely be called a top-tier Dharma Technique."

Lu Yuan said modestly: "Fellow Daoist Qin, you flatter me."

Just as Qin Ruoning said.

The Supernatural Power of Flying Body and Tracing Tracks is not only capable of void leaping, but to a certain extent, it can also serve as a unique means of stealth and defense.

After he merged his entire being into the void, the void space actually became a natural barrier; not only could the divine sense of a Golden Core Real Person no longer detect his existence, but ordinary means of attack were also fundamentally unable to break through the void to strike him.

However, this was limited to the Golden Core level; Lu Yuan could not temporarily determine whether the means of a Nascent Soul True Monarch could break through the void's isolation to discover and attack him, nor could he determine where the upper limit of the void's defensive barrier lay.

Of course, besides this, this Supernatural Power also had a not-insignificant limitation.

That is, just like Nine Breaths Serving Qi, when Lu Yuan performed this Supernatural Power, it would consume a massive amount of essence, Qi, and spirit. In the short span of less than ten breaths from performing it until now, not only had his Dharma Power bottomed out, but his mental energy was also heavily depleted, leaving him exhausted.

This was mainly caused by his insufficient cultivation; even if a Refining Qi into Spirit cultivator mastered such a powerful Supernatural Power, it could only serve as a trump card kept at the bottom of the box and could not be used as a routine method for the time being.

Even so, the effectiveness of this Supernatural Power could be called shocking.

Just at the initial stage of mastery, he could already achieve such miraculous and incredible things; Lu Yuan was now even more expectant of what kind of wonder it would be once his cultivation was higher and his mastery more profound.

Just like that.

After chatting with Qin Ruoning for a while, he immediately returned to his own meditation room to continue studying this Supernatural Power.

As his cultivation grew deeper, the passage of time became increasingly imperceptible to him; a single small insight or period of seclusion would see three or five years pass by.

And this time, Lu Yuan's study did not last too long.

Just half a year later, one day, the communication talismans carried by both him and Qin Ruoning simultaneously emitted an anomaly.

Knowing that this must be the Array Hall Elder named Su Lingyue sent down by Huanglong True Monarch, the two immediately left seclusion together and quickly rushed to the location of the Heavenly Ladder in the Extreme North.

The escape lights transformed by the two moved like lightning, and in just about two hours, they crossed vast mountains, rivers, oceans, and icy snowfields, arriving once again at the Heavenly Ladder in the center of the Extreme North.

And when they arrived, they saw that beneath the light mist of the Heavenly Ladder, a figure as graceful as a fairy was already standing in the void with a person who looked like a maid, inspecting the Great Evolution Mending Heaven Array that Lu Yuan had simplified and set up to deal with the arrivals from the Upper Realm.

Sensing someone's arrival, that figure immediately turned around, revealing a cold and beautiful face, and nodded slightly to signal:

"Fellow Daoist Bai, Fellow Daoist Qin, long time no see."

Qin Ruoning was not familiar with her and only nodded in response, while Lu Yuan, having long since used Embryo Transformation to take on the appearance of Bai Qianfeng before coming here, smiled and replied:

"Where in life do we not meet? After several years of separation, I did not expect to meet Fellow Daoist Su in this barren Lower Realm; it is truly a pleasant surprise."

Compared to Qin Ruoning, Bai Qianfeng was exceptionally familiar with Su Lingyue in his memories.

The reason was none other than that Bai Qianfeng was a person of dissolute and perverse temperament who thought highly of himself; ever since he stepped into the Golden Core realm, he had begun scouting for other female cultivators at the Golden Core level, wanting to become Dao companions.

Su Lingyue was second to none in Longshan Immortal City in terms of appearance, talent, and background, so Bai Qianfeng had started pestering and pursuing her very early on.

Unfortunately, the King of Xiang had the heart, but the Goddess had no desire; Su Lingyue had never shown any courtesy to Bai Qianfeng's pursuit and overtures, never giving him a good look, and had left Bai Qianfeng unable to step down in public several times, which for a time became a laughingstock in Longshan Immortal City.

Bai Qianfeng was, after all, a dignified Golden Core Real Person; after losing face too many times, he was too embarrassed to keep pestering her, so he eventually shifted his target and began to show favor and pursue Qin Ruoning.

However, Qin Ruoning was also a female cultivator who was proud and arrogant, and whose talent, appearance, and family background were not much inferior to Su Lingyue's; naturally, she had no interest in what the other party did not want, so she had never shown any courtesy to Bai Qianfeng's pursuit right up until the time they descended to the realm.

Hearing Lu Yuan's words, Su Lingyue seemed to recall some unpleasant memories; her willow eyebrows immediately furrowed, and she then changed the subject, pointing to the great array below:

"This array is truly mysterious and incomparable, rarely seen even in the Upper Realm; it is hard to imagine that this was set up by a Lower Realm cultivator. I wonder if the two of you have found the person who set up the array now?"

Qin Ruoning shook her head and said:

"No, this person likely lived in seclusion in this realm, far from the mortal world, and has already fallen, which is why the two of us have been unable to find their tracks."

Lu Yuan then probed:

"Listening to what the True Monarch said, has the Array Hall already refined better Array Flags that can re-deploy a more effective repair array?"

Su Lingyue nodded lightly, and with a wave of her hand, Array Flags the height of a person, radiating intense spiritual light, appeared before her:

"That is correct. The Lower Realm Array Flags you sent up were of ordinary material and were quite insufficient even after being nourished by Dharma Power. These Array Flags were made by me collecting spiritual peach wood hearts and the silk of six-eyed golden silkworms; using these to re-deploy the great array should be able to increase its repair speed for the Heavenly Ladder by more than fifty percent."

Beside her, her personal maid also smiled and said:

"My Lady has already re-deployed this repair array in the Upper Realm, and even the True Monarch praised it endlessly."

"Oh?"

Although the array diagram passed to the Upper Realm was a version he had deliberately simplified, the fact that she could reproduce it in such a short time was also extraordinary. Lu Yuan's gaze flickered, and he said:

"Then, Fellow Daoist Su, will you return with us to rest for a few days, or...?"

"No need to rest."

Su Lingyue said indifferently:

"The maintenance of the array in Longshan Immortal City is of vital importance; I cannot leave for too long. It is better to set up the array as soon as possible and return early after confirming its effectiveness. This time, I will leave Hanyu in the Lower Realm to guard this array, and the two of you can return to the Upper Realm with me."

Qin Ruoning looked with slight suspicion at the maid standing prettily to her side:

"Your maid seems to only have Foundation Establishment cultivation; leaving her in the Lower Realm..."

Su Lingyue said indifferently:

"Hanyu is my personal maid; her cultivation is already approaching the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, and in the way of arrays, she has gained quite a bit of the essence of my Su Family. It is most appropriate for her to be temporarily responsible for maintaining the Lower Realm, and there will be no problems. The True Monarch has also approved of this."

Lu Yuan did not ask further, his gaze burning as he said:

"Good, since that is the case, I will have to trouble Fellow Daoist Su."

Su Lingyue nodded slightly:

"Setting up this array is not easy; later, I ask the two of you to lend me a hand."

Having said that, her slender figure flew lightly into the air, and with a gentle wave of her fair hands, a full thirty-six Array Flags floated in the void, beginning the preparations before setting up the array.

As for Lu Yuan and Qin Ruoning, they exchanged a calm look, then their figures drifted upward and arrived behind her.