A moment later, the communication compasses of Yang Kai and Qin Chaoyang both buzzed at the same time.
Yang Kai channeled his Divine Sense into it and immediately received Duan Yuanshan's message: "Do as you see fit!"
Lifting his gaze, Yang Kai saw Qin Chaoyang wearing a helpless expression.
"Since the City Lord has spoken, you may proceed." Though Qin Chaoyang was still deeply worried, at this point he had no grounds to object. He could only silently calculate how he might extract more benefits from the City Lord after this affair was concluded.
After all, Qin Yu was a descendant he valued greatly. Even with her Causal Celestial Pupils, using secret techniques against Jiang Chuhe from a Void Return Realm Stage Two base across several major realms would still carry considerable risk.
"Brother Yang, I'll entrust Yu'er's care to you." Qin Chaoyang spoke with deep gravity, as though he were handing Qin Yu over in marriage to Yang Kai.
Yang Kai cupped his fists. "Rest assured, Elder Qin. I will do everything in my power to cooperate with Miss Qin!"
"Lord Yang, please follow me." Qin Yu beckoned from the side and flew off in a certain direction without delay.
Yang Kai reached out and hoisted Jiang Chuhe up, following closely behind her.
Several Void King Realm warriors assigned to protect Qin Yu at all times also trailed along.
Jiang Chuhe had already lost an arm to Yang Kai's blade outside the city, but the severed stump now churned with pitch-black energy, not a single drop of blood spilling forth. The sight was deeply unsettling.
Before long, the group arrived at the Qin family's main residence.
With Maple Leaf City under crisis, virtually all Qin family warriors at the Void Return Realm and above had gone to the city walls to aid in the defense. Those who remained at the Qin estate were mostly of lower cultivation and younger age.
The moment they saw Qin Yu return, they swarmed around her in a flurry of anxious chatter, peppering her with questions about the situation outside.
Qin Yu had no patience for their fussing. She put on the airs of a strict elder sister and delivered a sharp scolding that silenced the lot of them.
But when they caught sight of Jiang Chuhe dangling from Yang Kai's grip, they crowded around once more, gawking with wide-eyed curiosity.
"Roarrr…" Jiang Chuhe suddenly let out a guttural scream, his mouth gaping wide in a frenzied display. The younger Qin descendants shrieked and scattered in every direction, some of the more timid ones bursting into tears as they scrambled indoors.
"Forgive the embarrassment, Lord Yang." Qin Yu led the way without looking back.
Yang Kai offered no comment, keeping pace behind her.
Shortly after, the two arrived at a secret chamber within the Qin estate. Outside it, layer upon layer of restrictions hummed with power, and the ambient spiritual energy was far denser than elsewhere — clearly a place where the Qin family's important members went into seclusion.
Once there, Qin Yu formed a series of hand seals and dispelled the chamber's restrictions. She then turned to the Void King Realm guards and instructed, "Stand watch outside. No one is to enter before I come out!"
"Yes, ma'am!" the guards answered in unison, then fanned out to secure the perimeter.
Inside the chamber, Qin Yu reactivated all the restrictions before retrieving several items from her spatial ring and beginning to arrange them in an intricate pattern.
Yang Kai stood nearby with Jiang Chuhe in hand, watching for a moment before remarking with genuine curiosity, "Miss Qin, you're versed in the Dao of formations?"
He realized that what she was setting up was an extraordinarily complex formation array. Though he couldn't determine its exact function, it was evidently connected to the secret technique she intended to perform. And from the practiced fluidity of her movements, Qin Yu was clearly no mere amateur.
Qin Yu didn't pause her work, offering a modest smile. "Due to a stubborn illness, I can't venture out as often as others. I'm stuck at home studying things that aren't particularly glamorous. I wouldn't say I'm well-versed in formations — I've simply dabbled."
"You're too modest, Miss Qin." Yang Kai narrowed his eyes slightly. "I'd say your mastery of the Dao of formations has already reached a rather impressive level."
Qin Yu smiled. "This formation will not only amplify the power of the secret technique we're about to use, but it will also temporarily graft a portion of your Divine Sense onto me. That way, I'll be able to perform the Soul Searching technique at will."
"Grafted Divine Sense?" Yang Kai's expression shifted. "Such a wondrous formation exists in this world?"
Cultivating one's Divine Sense was notoriously difficult — far harder than advancing one's actual realm of cultivation. Had Yang Kai not obtained the priceless Spiritual Resonance Lotus in his early years and been freed from the burden of nurturing his Divine Sense, he would never have reached his current level in just a few decades. He would have been forced to spend vast amounts of time tempering his spiritual consciousness.
The Spiritual Resonance Lotus had saved him an enormous amount of effort.
Yet this formation array that Qin Yu was constructing could actually graft one cultivator's Divine Sense onto another. That was almost beyond belief.
If such a formation were deployed in battle, cross-realm combat would become entirely feasible. A single suppressed wave of Divine Sense would allow one to crush an opponent whose cultivation far exceeded one's own.
"The formation is remarkable, but not quite as miraculous as you might imagine, Lord Yang." Qin Yu seemed to read his thoughts and offered a calm explanation. "I learned it as a fragmentary array from an ancient text and restored it myself. When activated, it can't withstand too powerful an external interference, or it will certainly fail. So it's only suited for specific situations — like this one. It simply cannot be used in combat."
"Restored it yourself…" Yang Kai was genuinely astonished. In the depths of his mind, his estimation of this woman rose another notch. Her mastery of formations was not merely "impressive" — she had clearly achieved the level of a grand master.
"Oh, and this Divine Sense graft — won't it expose my private thoughts?" Yang Kai asked with a hint of concern.