It was Old Cat. At this moment, he had stepped into the tunnel leading directly toward the Ninth Heavenly River — a route he had prepared long ago.
Should the situation ever arise where he needed to use this teleportation talisman, he would not remain in the current Martial Cultivation World. Instead, he would head straight for the Ninth Heavenly River.
But now, his eyes radiated a golden glow, as if he could see through everything. This power came from the burning talisman paper in his hand.
"Damn it all."
"That woman really is no good. Turns out she's someone from the Seven Realms Holy Palace this whole time. If she'd just acted sooner, I wouldn't have had to waste such a precious teleportation talisman."
Old Cat grumbled bitterly.
With the burning talisman paper in his hand, he had locked onto Chu Feng's position. Naturally, he could also observe Jie Shanxian in the process.
Through lip reading, he had learned the content of the conversation between Chu Feng and the other.
He felt that Jie Shanxian had clearly been trying to screw him over. If he could, he would have loved to go back and teach Jie Shanxian a lesson.
But he didn't want to waste the teleportation talisman. Since he'd already used it, he might as well use it all the way through.
Besides, he had no desire to stay in this Martial Cultivation World any longer.
And when he thought about it — if he actually went back, Chu Feng would surely try to stop him from teaching Jie Shanxian a lesson. Worse still, Chu Feng might rope him into doing more work, and then he'd lose his freedom once again.
Thinking of this, Old Cat not only dropped the idea of punishing Jie Shanxian, but even his resentment toward her diminished considerably.
As the talisman paper burned to ash, the golden light in Old Cat's eyes faded as well. He could no longer track Chu Feng, yet he continued to gaze in the direction he had been watching.
"Chu Feng, you'd better make it into the Ninth Heavenly River. I'm actually a little curious — if you end up there, will you be able to stir up a storm too?"
A hint of anticipation flickered in Old Cat's eyes.
…
Old Cat could no longer lock onto Chu Feng.
But across this boundless starry sky, another pair of eyes had Chu Feng in their sights.
No matter how fast Chu Feng's bamboo boat traveled, it could precisely track him.
Unlike Old Cat, who needed the immense power of a talisman to lock onto Chu Feng within a limited time, this one seemed unaffected by any time constraint.
Moreover, almost no one could detect its presence or location.
…
After a period of travel, Chu Feng and Jie Shanxian arrived at a world within the Bloodline Heavenly River — an extraordinarily massive one.
From a distance, this world resembled a blazing sun, its fiery light surging toward the heavens, its radiance illuminating all.
This was not only because the world was large enough, but because it had no mountains, no land — only endless, bottomless molten lava that roiled in every direction.
The power of that lava was astonishing, far beyond ordinary magma. Anyone below the True God realm could not even approach it.
On top of that, there were no cultivation resources to be found, so the world held no trace of life. Naturally, there were no teleportation formations either.
Fortunately, Chu Feng and his companion were not relying on teleportation formations for this journey — they were traveling by bamboo boat.
At this moment, Chu Feng had entered the lava world and come to a halt, suspended in midair, with the churning molten lava roiling below him.
The waves raised by the lava were at minimum a thousand meters tall, occasionally reaching tens of thousands of meters. The sight was truly terrifying.
But Chu Feng fixed his gaze intently downward.
Because the spot where he had stopped was exactly the location marked on the map Jie Shanxian had given him.
He had already notified Jie Shanxian, but she ignored him, keeping her eyes closed — seemingly still in the process of healing her injuries.
Chu Feng didn't force an interruption. He could only observe on his own.
And through his observation, he truly did discover a clue. Hidden deep within the lava was an ancient barrier passage.
Chu Feng relayed what he had found to Egg Egg.
They both agreed that whatever Jie Shanxian was after had to be hidden inside that barrier passage.
"Even you, after you had already pinpointed the location, only then did you spot something off," Egg Egg remarked curiously. "So how did this Jie Shanxian discover this place in the first place?"
"Either she has heaven-defying observational abilities and found this spot herself," Chu Feng mused. "Or she obtained a clue from some fortuitous encounter that led her here."
"Whatever. Either way, we're just here to help."
In truth, Chu Feng wasn't particularly concerned with what was hidden here. It had nothing to do with him anyway.
As he spoke, he produced the piece of black iron. That was what he was truly focused on at this moment.