The sky was bright and clear, not a cloud for ten thousand miles. Beneath the vast blue firmament, a faint, almost imperceptible flash of light vanished in an instant — it was the glow of a flying artifact, moving far too quickly for any ordinary person to notice.
The artifact was Yang Kai's Drifting Cloud Shuttle, a flying Emperor Treasure crafted by Hou Yu. Its performance was exceptional — while its interior space was not particularly large, it could comfortably accommodate four people.
Yang Kai released the control restrictions, and the four took turns piloting the shuttle at full speed, relying on his faint sensing of the mark to track Gong Yue's whereabouts.
Gong Yue proved far more difficult to deal with than Yang Kai had anticipated. A full month had passed since the four of them left the ancient cave dwelling, yet they still hadn't caught a single glimpse of him. Moreover, the longer time went on, the weaker the mark's signal became. If this continued, they would almost certainly lose the trail entirely.
Yang Kai was growing increasingly anxious. At one moment, he suddenly opened his eyes.
Gao Xueting, who was piloting the Drifting Cloud Shuttle at the time, seemed to sense the change and glanced over at him. "Lost the signal again?" she asked.
Yang Kai gave a slight nod, a hint of helplessness crossing his features. During the first half-month, his connection with the mark had been faint but continuous. However, over the past two weeks, the link had begun cutting out at irregular intervals for reasons he couldn't fathom, causing him to lose his bearing on the trail entirely.
Back when he had planted the mark, Gong Yue's mind had been in disarray and unable to detect what Yang Kai had done — but Yang Kai hadn't dared be too heavy-handed, so the mark he left behind wasn't particularly strong. Over too great a distance, it was impossible to sense at all. He was grateful for the wondrous properties of his Space Divine Ability; without it, tracking Gong Yue would have been completely out of the question.
"Do you think Gong Yue might have sensed something?" Gao Xueting asked, frowning. "He is a two-time Emperor Realm cultivator, after all."
Yang Kai said, "Whether he's sensed it or not, we should count ourselves fortunate that he hasn't caused any chaos while on the loose."
It had been two months since Gong Yue's escape, but so far he hadn't done anything to harm living beings. He had simply been running in circles, as if searching for something — or perhaps trying to hide from something.
No one could tell whether this was an instinctive response, or whether he had regained his consciousness, or whether he had been fully possessed by demonic will.
His current state was a mystery to everyone. They would only be able to tell once they actually met him face to face.
Feng Ming let out a cold snort. "Now that he's fallen to demonic corruption, no matter how vast this world is, there's nowhere for him to hide. We'll find him eventually."
Chen Wenhao suddenly spoke up. "Do you two remember what happened at Maple Forest City back then?"
Gao Xueting and Feng Ming both nodded upon hearing this. "Of course we remember."
Chen Wenhao sighed. "After that incident, I made a point of returning to the Holy Land to search through numerous texts. I discovered that similar situations have been exceedingly rare throughout recorded history — yet in recent years, they seem to be occurring with alarming frequency."
"So what?" Feng Ming said, not understanding why Chen Wenhao had suddenly brought this up.
"The Demon Calamity is approaching," Chen Wenhao said in a grave voice. "Though events like these have been exceedingly rare in the distant past, and even when they did occur, the records were sparse and incomplete. But whenever such a thing happens, it is an omen — a very bad omen."
The other three were momentarily stunned by his words.
Feng Ming chuckled. "Even if that's really the case, it's not for the likes of us to worry about. If the sky falls, taller people will hold it up."
Neither Gao Xueting nor Chen Wenhao offered any comment on his easygoing attitude.
Feng Ming shifted the topic, stroking his chin. "On another note, I'm rather curious — what does Gong Yue look like after falling to demonic corruption? Does he bear any resemblance to that fellow we encountered outside Maple Forest City back then?"
"Back then... there were many suspicious aspects to that affair." Chen Wenhao furrowed his brow.
Gao Xueting also nodded in agreement. Back then, the three of them had fought a demon outside Maple Forest City, only to be inexplicably dragged into a pitch-black void. By the time they regained their senses, the enemy had vanished without a trace, and they themselves were completely unharmed — as though the demon had deliberately let them go.
No one could say for certain what had actually happened. After returning to their respective sects, all three had undergone thorough examinations and confirmed there was nothing wrong with them. Yet even so, after all these years, the memory of that incident remained vivid in their minds.
Hearing them bring up the past, Yang Kai silently closed his eyes. While controlling the Flowing Cloud Shuttle's flight, he focused his attention on tracking down Gong Yue's whereabouts.
After another day passed, Yang Kai's eyes suddenly snapped open as he called out in a low voice, "Found him!"
"Where?" Gao Xueting and the others opened their eyes at the same time.
Yang Kai pointed ahead. "Three thousand li from here."
Feng Ming's eyes lit up upon hearing this. "That close? Now let's see where he runs!"
Three thousand li. For an ordinary person, that might be a distance they could never cover in a lifetime, but for several Emperor Realm cultivators, it was a matter of moments at most.
The group had been tracking Gong Yue for an entire month and had never come this close to him before. Upon hearing the news, everyone's spirits were immediately lifted.
In the blink of an eye, the Flowing Cloud Shuttle had already arrived at the location.