"Good. Can you find where that person went?" a hoarse voice asked coldly.
"Of course. Although those few people used techniques to conceal the spiritual power on their bodies, in a situation where demonic Qi is so dense in the surroundings, it's impossible for outsiders to completely mask their auras. That person went in that direction! But the aura has already grown very faint — they should have left some time ago. And because the demonic Qi at high altitude flows so quickly, I have no confidence in truly catching up to them along this path." The woman replied honestly.
"Hmph, useless!" The old man flew into a rage the moment he heard those words.
The woman simply stood there helplessly, unable to do anything.
At that moment, another man with enormous horns on the ground flew up into the air. After several flickers, he arrived beside the woman, bowed deeply toward the sky above, and said:
"Reporting to Master — I have already extracted the residual soul from the Young Master's body, and used a secret technique to reconstruct the appearance of the killer."
"Release it. Let me see!" the old man commanded in a sinister tone.
The horned man acknowledged the order, gave his sleeve a shake, and a sphere of intertwined gray gas and black light immediately flew out. After circling once, it hovered above the man's head, perfectly still.
The man then formed hand seals with both hands, firing one mystical incantation after another at the sphere overhead.
With a muffled pop, the sphere burst apart, and an exceptionally dim, half-body phantom image materialized in the void.
The figure wore a green robe, his body shimmering with golden light, his features unremarkable. Between his brows, a flash of dark light revealed a pitch-black eyeball. The moment that eye shifted even slightly, dark radiance surged across its surface in an unsettling, ever-flowing display.
This phantom was naturally none other than Han Li!
With a crack, the image persisted for only a few breaths before exploding and dissipating into nothingness.
"The Dauntless Eye! Good — very good. It appears this is certainly the one. Only the spatial-sealing ability of the Dauntless Eye could have shattered my son's teleportation escape route. We depart immediately." The moment the old man clearly saw the third eye between Han Li's brows, he spoke through gritted teeth.
"Forgive my impudence, Master. Do you intend to pursue and kill this person yourself?" The horned man hesitated after hearing this and ventured a question.
"What — do you find some lack of clarity in my orders?" the old man's voice turned exceptionally dark and cold.
"I wouldn't dare! But Master, have you perhaps forgotten the reason for leaving seclusion this time? The Holy Ancestor's avatar is about to fully awaken by leveraging this surge of demonic Qi. If the Master arrives too late and Tie Mo and the others get the chance to slander you in front of the Holy Ancestor, I'm afraid there could be trouble." The horned man spoke with some hesitation.
"Hmph — Tie Mo!" The old man let out a cold snort, and though he seemed dismissive, he was clearly wavering.
"Very well. Jiuye, you excel at tracking and concealment. No matter what method you use, you are to find these people and keep them under close watch. As for me, I will go first to respectfully receive the Holy Ancestor upon his emergence from seclusion. After that, I'll rendezvous with you and avenge my son. If I come to find you and you still haven't located these people… I trust you understand what your fate will be." After his expression shifted between dark and light for a good while, the old man finally made the reluctant decision.
"Understood!" The woman's face changed, but she immediately lowered her head in agreement.
"Wuqi, let's go." The old man said nothing more to the woman and directly commanded the horned man. A large hand covered in blue-green scales reached out from within the clouds, and in a single flash, somehow plucked the mutilated remains from the misty sea below before lightning-quick withdrawing back into the clouds.
"Yes, Master!" The horned man answered respectfully and also transformed into a streak of red light that shot away, vanishing into the black clouds in the blink of an eye.
Then, with a rumbling of thunder, the black clouds rolled rapidly off in another direction.
In the blink of an eye, only the pointed-eared woman remained at the site.
When the distant black clouds finally disappeared without a trace at the far edge of the sky, the woman's fine, furry tail curled upward and she raised her head.
Her delicate brows were tightly furrowed — she clearly found the old man's order extremely troublesome.
But in the end, she let out a soft sigh. After sweeping her gaze in every direction and confirming the right heading, her figure shifted, and she transformed into a silver streak that shot away at high speed.
However, after the silver light had fled a little over a hundred zhang, the spiritual glow trembled suddenly, and the flight light began to blur and dim.
With one final flash, the silver light vanished entirely into the void.
…
Elsewhere in the Mojin Mountain Range, a Spirit Transformation cultivator and a Void Refining foreigner were flying slowly through the low sky.
Each of them held a palm-sized dharma plate in hand, occasionally stopping and starting as they watched the various reactions displayed on the plates.
"It's been several days now, and we haven't caught even a shadow of that Zhi Immortal. Uncle-Master Wang, do you think we might be searching in the wrong direction?" the Spirit Transformation cultivator — a young man in his thirties — couldn't help but ask the other person.
"My divination arts may not be infallible, but at the very least they boast a one-in-five accuracy rate. I've performed the divination several times in succession, and every result points in this direction." The other man — a haggard, middle-aged figure — simply continued staring at the dharma plate in his hands, answering without even raising his head.
"One in five — those aren't exactly great odds," the young man sighed, sounding somewhat disheartened.
"Hmph, well—
At that moment, the two of them happened to fly past two rather towering mountain peaks.