Atop the towering snow-capped mountain, Yang Kai sat quietly cross-legged on the ground as goose-feather snowflakes drifted down, gradually burying him.
Yang Kai remained unmoved, his aura suppressed to the extreme. Even if a Saint Realm expert happened to pass through the area, they might not necessarily detect any flaws.
At the base of the mountain, a streak of green light was approaching rapidly.
After a short while, the green light halted at the summit and resolved into a figure — it was Wu Jie of the Netherworld Sect.
Wu Jie carried Liu Gui in his hand. At this moment, the young man from the Battle Soul Hall seemed to have already resigned himself to his fate, hanging limply with no spirit whatsoever.
"Where is he?" Wu Jie glanced left and right but couldn't spot Yang Kai, asking in a cold voice.
Liu Gui quickly said, "It's right here! The location he pointed me to is exactly this place. Why can't we see him?"
As he spoke, he hastily began searching as well.
"Why did it take so long?" Suddenly, a voice came from directly in front of them. Liu Gui was startled, but upon recognizing whose voice it was, he called out joyfully: "Holy Lord!"
Wu Jie focused his gaze forward. Not far away, a pair of gleaming eyes had appeared from within a mound of snow.
A figure rose from the snow, and as true essence circulated through his body, the accumulated snow melted away.
Wu Jie's expression stiffened momentarily before he let out a raspy laugh. He tossed Liu Gui to the ground and cupped his fists: "Holy Lord, it's been a few years, and your bearing remains as magnificent as ever!"
As he spoke, those ghost-fire-like green eyes scanned Yang Kai up and down, as if trying to gauge how much he had grown. Upon sensing that Yang Kai had already reached the third stage of the Transcendent Realm, the green light in his pupils flickered even more rapidly.
"Sect Master Wu is looking well too." Yang Kai gave a slight nod.
Wu Jie quickly said, "Hehe, slipping away from those people and coming out alone took quite some time. I hope the Holy Lord won't hold it against me."
"As long as Sect Master Wu could make it, that's enough." Yang Kai's expression remained calm. He glanced at Liu Gui again and said, "You've worked hard too."
Liu Gui hastily waved his hands: "No trouble at all! It's my honor to serve the Holy Lord. Besides, Sect Master Wu flew me here the whole way... hehe..."
As he spoke, his face wore a hesitant, indecisive look, as if he wanted to say something but held himself back.
Yang Kai casually tossed him a jade bottle. "This is your reward for this trip. There may be occasions where I need your help again in the future. Go back and focus on your Cultivation."
Liu Gui caught it, overjoyed. "Thank you, Holy Lord!"
The last time he had brought Yun Xuan and Ruan Xinyu of the Pride Alliance to meet Yang Kai, he had received a bottle of spirit pills as a reward. With those pills, his strength had improved significantly. Now that Yang Kai had rewarded him with another bottle, Liu Gui was naturally delighted.
Clutching the jade bottle tightly, Liu Gui asked cautiously, "If there's nothing else you need me for, Your Excellencies, this disciple will take his leave. If I'm gone too long, those people might grow suspicious."
"Go on!" Yang Kai waved his hand.
Liu Gui scurried back the way he had come.
While Yang Kai had been speaking with Liu Gui, Wu Jie had stood silently to the side, listening without any intention of interrupting. Those unpredictable, eerie eyes shimmered with an odd light, as though he were deep in thought.
Only after Liu Gui had departed did Wu Jie ask in his raspy voice, "How do you have connections with that disciple from the Battle Soul Hall?"
Yang Kai smiled. "When your sects attacked the Nine Heavens Holy Land, I planted a piece in the Battle Soul Hall. I didn't expect it would prove useful this time. Hmm, take back whatever you did to him and spare his life. He may come in handy again."
Wu Jie let out a cackling laugh and said admiringly, "The Holy Lord's vision is truly sharp — you noticed even that. It seems your Divine Sense is more powerful than mine."
If that weren't the case, when Wu Jie had arrived at the peak earlier, he wouldn't have failed to detect Yang Kai's presence.
A warrior at the third stage of the Transcendent Realm whose Divine Sense surpassed that of a Saint Realm expert — what did that imply?
Wu Jie's heart was deeply shaken.
As he spoke, his fingers twitched slightly. A moment later, something horrifying — like a ghostly face — drifted back from the direction Liu Gui had departed and merged silently into Wu Jie's body, vanishing without a trace.
"Sect Master Wu, how did your people end up here?" Yang Kai's expression turned serious as he raised the main topic.
Back in Giant Stone City, when Yang Kai had released his divine sense and sensed Liu Gui's presence, he truly hadn't been able to believe it. If Liu Gui was here, that meant people from the Battle Soul Hall were here — which in turn meant the Netherworld Sect and the Broken Mystery Manor were definitely here as well.