Chapter 519: A Familiar Aura

Hua Changxi was not surprised that the major human factions had sent people to infiltrate the heart of Jiuyou; nor was she surprised that these infiltrators were now returning one after another.

However, seeing that more than half of the returning cultivators had ignited black flames, her expression grew solemn.

Asura Sect!

There was no need to guess; those cultivators igniting black flames were definitely linked to the Asura Sect.

Moreover, the Asura Sect's sphere of activity in Jiuyou was vast; even though she had killed one group, others were still active elsewhere.

In the Jiuyou Auction House, Su Mingyue occasionally glanced across at the Human Auction House, her gaze exceptionally cold, especially when looking toward the imperial family's seat, where dense killing intent flowed forth.

"You, come here!"

Su Mingyue glanced at the hourglass that was nearly empty, then summoned the ghost clansman who had previously wielded a bone umbrella to fend off Lady Bank of Flowers' attack, handing him a list: "Take a few subordinates down and exchange these for supplies."

The ghost clansman Chu Junyi stepped forward, respectfully accepting the list. He quickly glanced at Su Mingyue, reluctance flashing in his eyes: "This humble officer will not fail your expectations."

Su Mingyue merely gave a faint "Mm," without even looking at Chu Junyi.

Chu Junyi said nothing more, quickly leading four subordinates out of the Jiuyou Auction House.

Lady White Bone watched the five depart, then looked thoughtfully at Su Mingyue.

Ghost King Mingyue seemed to treat Chu Junyi somewhat specially; could it be that she was the Ghost King who had dealings with the Demon-Suppressing Army?

After leading Meng Ziyu and the other four out of the Jiuyou Auction House, Chu Junyi glanced up at the building before quickening his pace toward the shadowy Fourth-Tier Stall Path of Jiuyou.

"The auction is about to end!"

"We must find a chance to revert to our human forms and return to the human stalls immediately."

The five weaved between various stalls, and soon their figures were swallowed by the myriad beings of Jiuyou.

Meanwhile, in the Human Auction House, additional figures appeared in the seats reserved for the major holy lands, guardian families, the imperial family, and other noble clans.

Tong Yao, Jing Le, and Yan Zhenzhen exchanged quick glances upon seeing them.

"Elder Sixteen."

Xia Zhen walked straight to the Dan Sheng Hall's seat, sat beside Meng Qingyao, and shook his head at Xia Ji, who was seated next to her.

Seeing the guilt on his face, Xia Ji said, "As long as everyone returned safely, that is what matters."

Xia Zhen scanned the various Secret Realm Masters of the Dan Sheng Hall; seeing them closely monitoring his every move, hesitation and indecision appeared on his face.

Information had always been crucial.

Especially firsthand intelligence.

Xia Zhen knew clearly that the intelligence gathered during their deep infiltration into the heart of Jiuyou was immensely important.

Perhaps this could be used to win over some Secret Realm Masters; even if they could not be won over, they must at least be made aware of the Xia family's strength.

Thinking thus, Xia Zhen suppressed his hesitation and prepared to recount the gains from this expedition.

Before taking their seats, each faction had arranged soundproofing formations to facilitate private conversation, so he need not worry about others overhearing his words.

"Among the factions that ventured deep into the heart of Jiuyou, aside from the Asura Sect, almost all others suffered no losses."

Upon hearing this, everyone from the Dan Sheng Hall broke into smiles.

Even though the major factions competed with one another daily, they knew where their priorities lay in the struggle between the Human Realm and Jiuyou.

Meng Qingyao smiled and said, "That is good; after all, those sent out were the elite of the human race."

Hearing this, Xia Zhen shook his head: "The experts of Jiuyou are far more numerous than we imagined. The reason there were few casualties this time is that someone diverted the attention of Jiuyou's various races."

Meng Qingyao froze for a moment, then fell silent before asking tentatively, "Was it that human?"

Xia Zhen nodded.

Meng Qingyao was shaken again, exclaiming in surprise, "Are the rumors about 'a single human' true? Did a human really appear and throw Jiuyou into chaos?"

Dongfang Hao, Dongfang Xu, and the various Secret Realm Masters all fixed their eyes on Xia Zhen, awaiting his reply.

Xia Zhen shook his head: "I do not know. But..."

"The appearance of the Netherworld Blade is real."

"The emergence of the Netherworld Deer is also real."

"Lady Bank of Flowers had her clone destroyed; Lady Chi Yan, famous throughout Jiuyou for her Nightmare Arts, mysteriously vanished; and the Lady's Tower was robbed—all of these are true as well."

After hearing this, Dongfang Hao asked in confusion, "How could these matters be related to humans?"

Xia Zhen replied, "Because a Nightmare Tapir at the peak of the King Realm personally testified that the soul clansman riding the Netherworld Deer and seizing the key to the Jiuyou Soul Realm was a human in disguise."

"He also claimed that this human stole ten Nine-Aperture Exquisite Soul Heart Fruits from him."

Dongfang Hao shook his head: "That Nightmare Tapir is definitely lying; it is impossible for a human to summon the Netherworld Deer, the Dao Envoy of Jiuyou!"

Seeing Xia Zhen remain silent, Xia Ji asked, "What is it? Do you think the Nightmare Tapir was not lying?"

Xia Zhen nodded: "Setting aside the fact that a great beast at the peak of the King Realm would have no need to lie, especially in such a shameful manner as having his home raided..."

"Most importantly, on the way back, I learned some news from the soul clan."

"Although the Netherworld Deer is a Dao Envoy, it enjoys listening to Soul Ballads."

"This means one does not need to be an expert who has walked the Great Dao of Jiuyou; anyone capable of playing a Soul Ballad can summon the Netherworld Deer."

"And humans are also capable of playing Soul Ballads."

Gu Jinfan spoke up: "However, as far as I know, Soul Ballads are extremely difficult to play; even among the soul clan, who specialize in the Soul Dao, one capable player may not emerge in a thousand years."

Xia Zhen still insisted on his view: "Difficult to play does not mean absolutely impossible."

"Under the grand trend of spiritual qi recovery, opportunities emerge endlessly; there is no such thing as absolutely impossible."

Gu Jinfan also found this reasoning sound, yet wondered who could possess such ability.

Xia Ji narrowed his eyes: "If Sixteen's speculation is correct, then the key to the Jiuyou Soul Realm is in human hands."

Meng Qingyao looked over and asked, "Master, what exactly is the Jiuyou Soul Realm?"

Xia Ji replied, "It is a secret realm—a secret realm birthed by the Soul River!"

Upon hearing this, everyone understood the preciousness of the Jiuyou Soul Realm.

Most of the secret realm masters had already opened their Spirit Platforms; they knew well that after a cultivator opens a Spirit Platform, they must cultivate both spiritual power and soul power simultaneously, with soul power taking precedence.

After the Spirit Platform realm comes the Spirit Concentration realm.

To advance into the Spirit Concentration realm, one cannot break through without condensing a Yuan Spirit using a vast amount of soul power.

Although spiritual energy in the mortal world is dense, soul power is scarce, causing many cultivators to slow their progress significantly after reaching the Spirit Platform realm.

Xia Ji murmured softly, "Who could that person be?"

Similar conversations were quietly taking place within other human factions as well.

Wei Zhenjie knew that the key to the Nine Nether Soul Realm might truly have fallen into human hands, and his excitement nearly overflowed his expression.

However, since Chu Junyi and the other four had not yet returned, his inner worry suppressed that excitement.

On the Nine Nether stall streets, upon seeing that batch of human cultivators igniting black flames, many of whom had entered the Mortal World Auction House, Hua Changxi paid them no further attention.

Nowadays, every stall street had become increasingly noisy and clamorous.

As the auction entered its final stages, both stall owners and traders grew impatient; bargaining nearly vanished as both parties urgently sought to complete their transactions quickly.

"Hmm?"

Because the man from the Nether River had been staring at her continuously, Hua Changxi had found no opportunity to transform; suddenly, she sensed a familiar aura.

She whirled around instantly, her gaze sharp as lightning, piercing through layers of surging figures to swiftly lock onto a male human cultivator wearing a Qilin mask.

That aura...

Any magical artifact, once bound to a master, carries its owner's aura.

At this moment, Hua Changxi sensed her own aura emanating from that male human cultivator.

Since beginning her cultivation, she had lost only one magical artifact—the Buddhist prayer bead bracelet!

In an instant, excitement surged in Hua Changxi's eyes; only heaven knew how desperately she wanted to recover that Buddhist prayer bead bracelet.

Losing the bracelet itself mattered little, but the ten Qihuang tokens and the Totem Golden Alms Bowl contained within it could not be lost.

Hua Changxi's gaze fixed intently on the black-and-yellow pendant sword gripped in the right hand of that male human cultivator.

Hanging conspicuously from the end of the sword's hilt was a string of plain Buddhist prayer beads!

Seeing her long-lost Buddhist prayer bead bracelet, Hua Changxi nearly rushed forward immediately to reclaim her property, but soon she noticed another astonishing fact.

It was him!

She recognized that male human cultivator and the four people behind him—they were precisely the five human cultivators from the Yellow Springs Ancient Path.

These five had not died!

Hua Changxi then recalled the five ghost clansmen who had constantly followed beside Lady White Bone...

If those five ghost clansmen were truly transformations of five humans, then these five possessed remarkable methods, having actually deceived her Eye of Illusion Breaking!

This was not the time for deep investigation; suppressing her curiosity, Hua Changxi quickened her steps toward the five.

Since everyone was currently busy completing transactions, the crowd was packed tight, making it the perfect moment to quietly 'reclaim' the Buddhist prayer bead bracelet.

Hua Changxi weaved through the crowd, pushing past one person after another.

Unfortunately, while she accelerated, the five ahead accelerated as well.

Chu Junyi detected immediately that he was being targeted; glancing quickly from the corner of his eye, he discovered it was actually a Nine Nether rogue cultivator.

This immediately triggered many thoughts in his mind.

Why had that Nine Nether rogue cultivator targeted him?

Could some Nine Nether expert have discovered his relationship with his great-aunt?

They had been extremely cautious while transforming from 'ghost clansmen' back into humans; logically, no one should have discovered them.

Unless someone had been watching them all along.

"Boss, we have a tail behind us."

The Demon-Suppressing Army had fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood time and again; even though Hua Changxi was very careful, Meng Ziyu and the other four still detected the anomaly.

Chu Junyi looked up at the nearly empty hourglass and the stone platform slowly sinking into the ground, his eyes flashing with ferocity: "Lure that rogue cultivator into the Five Directions Great Formation."

?? Dear readers, the plot in the previous two chapters has been slightly adjusted.