Chapter 375

A blue Jeep sped alone across a desolate road on barren land.

Calling it a road was generous—it was merely a haphazard patchwork of crushed stone and bitumen, far from level, barely passable for cars.

Occasional trees flashed by on either side of the highway, but most were withered, yellow shrubs.

Wang Yu inside the Jeep was also busy with something.

A yellow map had been unfolded and taped to the side window.

On a horizontally placed phone screen, hot news from Nanlazhou played, occasionally emitting the fluent voice of an English Commonwealth woman.

On the passenger seat, flour sacks and honey jars lay open; a large lump of dough, mixed from both, appeared in Wang Yu's palm.

As his five fingers moved nimbly, thin strands of black qi seeped into the dough, gradually turning it waxy yellow and glossy, flattening slightly.

"Snap."

Wang Yu's gaze never left the phone screen, but his arm moved—he pressed the entire lump of dough against his face, then released the steering wheel and used all ten fingers to knead his face.

In an instant, a waxy yellow face with deep-set eye sockets and a high nose replaced his original features.

He muttered incantations, both hands forming seals, and spoke a single word: "Solidify."

Faint white rune shadows flashed across the new face, transforming its previously stiff, lifeless appearance into one that was vivid, expressive, and natural.

This was one of the many low-grade spells Yin Family had gathered for him: the illusion technique "Face-Shaping," capable of molding a new face from simple materials to disguise one's identity for extended periods.

Though this non-tier spell could be easily pierced by a cultivator's spiritual sense, to ordinary people it was a miraculous face-changing art.

Thus, he no longer needed to continuously drain his qi to maintain his "Illusion Form" technique.

His current driving goal was the "Hankola" Desert, dozens of li away—less than two hours by car.

This desert was the second largest in the English Commonwealth, spanning nearly ten thousand square li, half belonging to the Commonwealth, half to Xierde; the border between the two nations ran through its center, making it the most frequented smuggling corridor.

After all, such a desolate region couldn't support heavy patrols— the English Commonwealth had only symbolically marked a few border segments, while Xierde had established merely two border stations, nearly turning a blind eye to smugglers.

The only real challenge for smugglers was navigating the desert without getting lost amid frequent sandstorms.

Though modern tools could aid navigation, without an experienced local guide, no ordinary person could cross such a vast desert.

Even he, relying solely on his bare feet, would find it no easy feat.

But right now, his most urgent priority was to reach the desert before the castle's people found him.

Only under the cover of this immense desert terrain, where modern tracking methods would fail, could he truly shake off their pursuit.

As Wang Yu pondered, he reached down with one hand, grabbed a pre-packaged sandwich from a bag at his feet, tore open the wrapper with his teeth, and devoured it in large bites.

This flesh body, compared to his cultivation-world body, honed through countless trials, was pathetically weak—he must strengthen it the moment he had time, to unlock more techniques for self-preservation.

Just as Wang Yu swallowed a few bites and used his free hand to summon water from the air via the Water Gathering spell, his expression flickered—he turned his head instinctively toward the castle.

In that instant, he suddenly felt as if something unseen had gazed deeply into him.

In the cultivation world, he would have immediately assumed another cultivator was using a soul-tracking technique to locate him.

But this was Blue Star!

Could the English Commonwealth people in the castle possess methods akin to soul-tracking techniques, beyond their modern tools?

Wang Yu immediately split his vast spiritual sense into several threads, meticulously scanning every inch of this flesh body—but found nothing.

It seemed saving yin qi was no longer possible!

Wang Yu's face darkened; he slammed on the brakes and reached toward his forehead.

"Puff."

A jet of black qi erupted from his forehead, coalescing instantly into a white, bone-white banner several feet long.

He gripped it with one hand, closed his eyes slightly, formed a seal with the other, and chanted softly.

"Whooosh."

The pitch-black, glossy banner unfurled, spewing thick black mist that swallowed Wang Yu whole; within the mist, mournful wails echoed, countless shadowy forms flickering in and out, pouring into his body.

He had summoned a vast number of yin spirits from the Yin Soul Banner and used them to cleanse this flesh body.

Though brutal and even harmful to the body, this was a common method among demonic cultivators to destroy internal seals.

"Puff."

On his lower leg, a green mark shaped like a set of scales surfaced—after being struck repeatedly by shadowy forms, it dissolved into a wisp of green smoke.

Wang Yu's hand shot out, fingers wreathed in black qi, snatching the green smoke into his palm and scanning it with his spiritual sense.

It contained no qi, no spiritual force—but seemed infused with some kind of impurity. How had it evaded his internal spiritual inspection before?

Wang Yu's heart tightened, but he immediately rolled his hands together in black qi.

"Sizzle."

The green smoke was crushed under overwhelming yin qi, vanishing into nothing.

But now, he felt he had already revealed his position.

Wang Yu instinctively looked up.

The sky, save for the blinding sun, was utterly clear—no object in sight.

…

"Ah, my eyes!"

In a white room beneath the castle, a middle-aged man in a tailcoat knelt before a half-meter-tall statue, frantically pressing his palms over one eye as blood trickled between his fingers; dozens of crimson crystal orbs lay scattered on the floor around him.

These orbs were arranged in the shape of an eye, surrounding both the man and the statue; each orb had split open at its center, slowly oozing crimson blood, filling the room with a thick stench of blood.

The half-meter-tall statue depicted a nude woman above, a serpent below—yet more chilling was the fact that the woman's face bore no features; instead, a massive, lifelike eye—black and white, vivid as if alive—was carved clearly onto her abdomen.

"What happened? Did the divination fail?" asked the blonde woman standing nearby, frowning.