Chapter 301: The Return of Long Yuan

Puh…

Puh puh puh…

Jingxin Daoist spat out several mouthfuls of blood.

Her face was pale white; her spiritual sense had suffered severe damage.

Lying on the ground, she pulled a necklace from her neck.

At the bottom of the necklace was a white jade.

Now, the jade was cracked with countless fissures.

This was no ordinary jade—it was a spiritual artifact capable of defending against spiritual sense attacks. Though low in rank, she had worn it constantly for years, nurturing it daily with her spiritual sense and soul energy, so its defensive power was far from weak.

"Damn it!" Jingxin's head throbbed: "If not for this jade tablet, my spiritual sense would have collapsed today!"

"Who is it?"

"Who exactly attacked me?"

She didn't believe He Pingsheng was the attacker.

After all, in her mind, He Pingsheng was merely a Foundation Establishment eleventh-layer cultivator—he couldn't possibly possess such powerful spiritual sense.

It must be some senior expert who saw me bullying low-level disciples and decided to give me a lesson.

Damn it!

I was careless.

Jingxin dragged her heavy body back to her room.

Then she activated layer upon layer of seals and arrays.

Spirit-Sealing Array, Defense Array.

Only after opening layer upon layer did she finally feel at ease.

But now that her spiritual sense teetered on the brink of collapse, she could do nothing else—she sat cross-legged on the ground and began repairing her spiritual sense.

Of course, after He Pingsheng had just used the technique 【Formless North Star Nail】, his soul energy was nearly depleted—he couldn't launch a second spiritual sense attack for a long while.

He could only watch helplessly as Jingxin hid away.

He Pingsheng quickly found a corner in the square, sat down, and secretly swallowed a top-grade third-rank elixir: 【Soul-Returning Pill】.

Motionless, he restored his spiritual sense.

After about half an hour, his spiritual sense was fully restored.

Once his spiritual sense recovered, He Pingsheng could no longer see Jingxin.

At this moment, Jingxin was hidden within her arrays—he could no longer launch a spiritual sense attack.

Wait.

There will be a time in the future to seek revenge.

He Pingsheng took a deep breath, pushed the previous incident from his mind, and frowned: What's going on with the top-grade Twin-Soul Elixir?

Previously, it could expand spiritual sense tenfold.

Why this time, only about fourfold?

He Pingsheng couldn't find a reason, but he knew this 【Twin-Soul Elixir】 was a second-rank elixir; even as a top-grade one, its potency had limits.

Perhaps twenty thousand zhang of spiritual sense is the absolute limit of the Twin-Soul Elixir.

"It must be so!"

He Pingsheng finally attributed the cause to the rank of the Twin-Soul Elixir.

Huh…

Seeing Jingxin dared not emerge, He Pingsheng relaxed—he now possessed twenty thousand zhang of spiritual sense, and with even stronger defense, he need not fear spiritual sense ambushes for the next fifteen days.

He Pingsheng stood up, ready to go to the stall where he had earlier bought a map.

But before he took a step, he suddenly saw a person.

A cultivator with streaks of white in his temples.

Fuck…

Seeing this man, He Pingsheng nearly wet himself.

How is it him?

Long Yuan?

But… it's fine!

He Pingsheng's current appearance, though recognizable by Jingxin and even all cultivators in Hongshi City, was unknown to Long Yuan.

Because this appearance was not his true face.

Wait…

He Pingsheng had just breathed a sigh of relief when he instantly grew wary: No—though Long Yuan doesn't recognize me now, if he asks around, inquires about those who've seen me, he'll definitely identify me.

What do I do?

He Pingsheng sat down slowly.

He retracted his spiritual sense, daring only to glance at Long Yuan with the corner of his eye.

Yet something shocking happened.

Long Yuan stood in the square, turned around, and his gaze locked directly onto him.

And Long Yuan's lips curled into a faint smile.

Clearly, he had recognized him.

He Pingsheng frowned tightly.

Damn it… why am I so unlucky today?

Long Yuan traveled thousands of miles to Liang Country's Xishu Commandery—this couldn't be for any other reason.

He must be here to capture me.

Just think about it—he must have recognized me from afar all along, otherwise he wouldn't have so brazenly appeared for me to spot him.

What do I do?

Fleeing would mean death.

In this moment, He Pingsheng's mind was flooded with a thousand thoughts.

Yet at that instant, Long Yuan, hands behind his back, stepped slowly toward He Pingsheng.

No!

He must not be allowed to come closer.

Otherwise, one palm strike from him would kill me outright.

"Open—!"

He Pingsheng, desperate and reckless, seized the initiative and instantly unleashed the spiritual sense technique again: 【Formless North Star Nail】.

Seven invisible spiritual sense nails shot toward Long Yuan's spiritual sense core.

Long Yuan was no Jingxin, a Nascent Soul first-layer cultivator—his cultivation base was far higher.

Of course, his spiritual sense was also vastly stronger than Jingxin's.

Long Yuan's spiritual sense extended thirty thousand zhang—far exceeding He Pingsheng's after consuming the top-grade 【Twin-Soul Elixir】.

Yet he lacked any artifact capable of defending against spiritual sense attacks.

Thus, the effect of He Pingsheng's spiritual sense strike was astonishingly similar.

Long Yuan's spiritual sense did not collapse, but it was disrupted by seventy to eighty percent.

He spat out several mouthfuls of blood and collapsed onto the ground.

If He Pingsheng could have delivered another strike with 【Formless North Star Nail】 now, Long Yuan would be dead for sure.

Unfortunately, He Pingsheng had just expended all his spiritual sense in the first strike—he could not launch a second attack.

"Master… what happened to you?"

A woman in red robes, Honglian, rushed forward and supported her master, Long Yuan.

Long Yuan squinted, wiped blood from his lips, and said: "Go… this boy must have a guardian watching over him!"

Though he clearly felt the spiritual sense attack originated from He Pingsheng's direction, he refused to believe it was He Pingsheng himself.

In his view, someone was secretly protecting He Pingsheng.

"Quickly go!" Long Yuan urged: "Leave first—then we'll talk!"

Hummm…

Long Yuan seized Honglian's hand and instantly teleported away from the square, vanishing into the nearby deep mountains.

"Master…" an hour later, in a certain cave, Honglian asked: "How long until your spiritual sense recovers?"

Long Yuan said: "The elixirs I have for restoring spiritual sense are too low-grade—it will take at least two months, possibly longer!"

"Don't worry about me!"

"Go to the square, watch He Pingsheng—don't let him escape, and don't act rashly. Someone is protecting him nearby—just keep watch!"

"Also, when the secret realm opens, enter with the others. To kill him, you must do it inside the secret realm!"