Several hours later, Han Li finally flew out from an ice crevice in the Inner Valley, but he immediately halted his movement light, his figure suspended motionless in the frigid wind.
Within the Inner Valley, his spiritual sense was still significantly restricted. Searching with divine sense alone would prove far too cumbersome.
After a moment's thought, Han Li slapped the spirit beast bag at his waist.
Instantly a deafening buzz erupted as countless Gold Devouring Beetles swarmed from the bag, then merged into a golden cloud of insects that hovered above his head.
His hands flickered through a rapid series of seals, sending several spell hands into the insect cloud. Then he sat cross-legged on the spot and slowly closed his eyes.
With a muffled pop, the golden insect cloud burst apart of its own accord, splitting into tens of thousands of individual beetles that shot off in every direction, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.
Han Li had deployed his Divine Sense into a Thousand technique right here on the spot, beginning his search for the three women.
As he saw it, the three — the Song-surnamed woman and her companions — possessed only Core Formation cultivation, and they were not the sort to act rashly. Even if they had entered the Inner Valley, they would not have ventured too deep. This would naturally narrow the search area considerably.
Under the simultaneous sweep of over ten thousand Gold Devouring Beetles, vast stretches of ground were combed again and again. Only after finding no trace whatsoever did Han Li fly another hundred-odd li onward and dispatch the beetles once more for a fresh search.
Thus, when he finally reached the great mountain where the three women had been harvesting spirit herbs, he very easily discovered traces left behind from that day — signs of where they had picked the spirit plants.
Upon detecting these traces through the beetles' linked spiritual sense, Han Li was delighted. He immediately went to those locations in person and inspected them carefully.
The result, naturally, was that he found several leads, confirming at last that the three women had indeed entered the Inner Valley and lingered on this mountain.
However, once he expanded the search radius further, there was no trace of the three women to be found.
In the end, Han Li had no choice but to return to the mountaintop and fall into deep thought.
After brooding for a while, he suddenly let out a long whistle. The Gold Devouring Beetles scattered across dozens of li all flew back, and he collected them once more into the spirit beast bag.
But immediately after, Han Li tossed out a different bag.
This time, twelve winged snow-white centipedes flew from it.
They were precisely the twelve Six-Winged Frost Centipedes!
With a series of hand seals and a pulse of spiritual sense, the twelve snow-white centipedes scattered simultaneously in all directions, transforming into twelve gusts of cold wind that vanished from sight in an instant.
Han Li remained perfectly still where he stood.
After an indeterminate length of time, Han Li's expression shifted. He dissolved into a streak of azure light and shot back the way he had come.
After flying for only a short while, he spotted one of the snow-white centipedes circling in the air above a certain spot, emitting a low, hissing cry.
Han Li narrowed his eyes slightly, and in a flicker his movement light brought him directly beneath the centipede.
He lowered his gaze toward the ground below.
There, lying amid a patch of wild grass, was a dark, slender object — something so ordinary-looking, like an unremarkable blackened twig, that no wonder the Divine Sense into a Thousand technique had failed to detect it earlier.
Han Li frowned, raised a hand, and beckoned. The twig-like object flew into his palm.
But the moment he focused his attention and examined it closely, his expression shifted subtly.
It was no twig at all. It was a small section of a tentacle — and from the frigid aura emanating from it, this was unmistakably the tentacle of a Six-Winged Frost Centipede.
Yet a Six-Winged Frost Centipede's tentacle should have been snow-white. This one, however, was black as ink, and the sinister, brooding energy threaded through it was something Han Li recognized with unsettling familiarity.
Profound Yin Demonic Qi! And so extraordinarily pure — seemingly even more refined than what Grand Ancestor Ji Yin had possessed.
Han Li gently ran his finger along the small tentacle, his heart churning with turbulent waves of shock.
After all, the Profound Yin Demonic Qi was born of the Profound Yin Arts. The only ones who had ever cultivated this demonic technique were Grand Ancestor Ji Yin and Wu Chou, both of whom had perished at his hand. Ji Yin's other disciples had likely never received the true teachings of this art, nor could any of them have cultivated demonic qi to such purity and then made their way to the Heavenly South.
Han Li's expression shifted between light and shadow, and he fell into a silence.
"No — there is one more being who knows the complete incantation of the Profound Yin Arts, who has cultivated the Profound Yin Demonic Qi, and who would seemingly have the ability to refine demonic qi to this level of purity." A flash of insight struck Han Li's mind as he recalled something, and his expression became peculiar.
"The Spiritual Wood Nascent Soul — could it have returned to the Heavenly South as well?" Han Li lifted his head to gaze at the sky and murmured softly.
This lost Second Nascent Soul had weighed on his mind ever since its disappearance.
After returning to the Heavenly South, he should have set out immediately to search for it. But Nangong Wan had not yet emerged from the ice wall, and unwilling to leave her side, he had naturally been reluctant to embark on any long journey.
Besides, so many years had already passed. If the Second Nascent Soul had been capable of developing spiritual consciousness, it would have done so long ago. A few more years would make little difference.