"Master, please proceed with the technique. This subordinate will certainly handle the matter of standing guard," Yang Lu said without hesitation.
"Good. Then let us find a suitable spot up ahead to carry this out." Ma Liang nodded faintly and spoke in an even tone.
The two immediately launched streaks of light and shot straight toward the colossal mountain range ahead.
Several hours later, atop a towering peak at the heart of the mountain range, the black-robed young man sat cross-legged on the ground with his eyes shut. Before him, a black-and-white crystal sphere spun round and round ceaselessly, and a blood-red ghostly face slowly surfaced upon it.
Ma Liang extended a single finger and tapped the crystal sphere. Instantly, a savage expression appeared on the ghostly face. Its eyes locked onto a particular direction with an unblinking stare, and in the very next moment, it spat out a blood-red sphere of light.
The sphere of light flickered once and silently sank into the black-robed young man's brow.
"Hmph, so those two really did flee to this continent. Hmm — looking at the direction they're in, it seems remarkably close to where that Helian Merchant Alliance is located. Could they have taken refuge there?" Ma Liang's eyes snapped open, a trace of surprise written across his face.
"If the people of the Merchant Alliance harbored designs against Master, it is entirely possible they would also shelter those two disrespectful juniors who showed contempt for you." Yang Lu, standing off to the side, rolled his eyes about and quickly offered this reply.
"If that's the case, all the better — we can deal with them all at once." Ma Liang let out a cold laugh, opened his mouth once more, and with a soft "pfft" absorbed the crystal sphere and ghostly face back into his body as a swirl of black-and-white qi.
But then his expression grew stern. He brought one hand down upon the top of his head, and immediately a shower of golden light coalesced as a small figure radiating five-colored radiance materialized out of thin air.
This small figure was identical to Ma Liang in every feature, yet its body was crystalline and translucent, resembling a figure carved from colored glaze. One tiny hand merely waved through empty air, and a golden talisman immediately unfurled from within its body, circling and fluttering nearby.
The glaze-like small figure wore a solemn expression. It formed a series of hand seals, and all ten fingers began flicking toward the golden talisman in rapid succession, like the turning of a carriage wheel.
The talisman hummed, and a gray-white phantom emerged from it.
The phantom appeared to be a strikingly handsome young man, yet its eyes were vacant and lifeless. It simply hovered in the empty air, and within its body, a faint black-and-white ribbon of light could be seen connecting it to the talisman.
"Go!"
The glaze-like small figure let out a low shout. The hand seals shifted, and five-colored radiance surged wildly across its surface.
The handsome young man's phantom blurred, and then its eyes suddenly came alive as it lunged in a particular direction. However, after flying barely a hundred-odd zhang, the black-and-white ribbon of light yanked it back viciously.
"Ha ha ha — I've finally found this realm's target. It shouldn't be long now before I can return to the Immortal Realm with ease." Joy surfaced on the small figure's face, and it could not help but burst into hearty laughter.
Then the seals in the small figure's hands changed once more. It, the golden talisman, and the handsome young man's phantom all flickered and vanished without a trace.
Below, Ma Liang's true body opened its eyes, brimming with excitement. To be able to sense his target's location so effortlessly through a mere wisp of a remnant soul — this had far exceeded his expectations.
"Congratulations, Master. Shall we go after the target of your journey first, or deal with the Helian Merchant Alliance?" Yang Li hurriedly asked, his face full of smiles.
"Hmm. Now that I know the precise location of my target, there's no need to worry about them slipping away. We should deal with those members of the Helian Merchant Alliance who dare to oppose me first. It won't take much time, in any case. My Myriad Spirits Blood Seal is still missing a few grand blood sacrifices before it can be fully refined." Ma Liang deliberated briefly, then displayed a trace of a savage expression.
Upon hearing this, Yang Lu naturally had no objections whatsoever.
The two of them launched streaks of light once more and shot off in a particular direction.
Meanwhile, at the very moment Ma Liang had used that golden talisman to sense his target, deep within the forbidden grounds of the Spirit Race's domain, beneath an ice peak over a thousand zhang tall whose surface shimmered with faint blue light, a strikingly handsome young man bound by chain after chain of talismanic seals lay with his eyes shut, sunk in unconsciousness.
Suddenly, the golden spirit pattern between his brows flashed once, and the eyeballs beneath his eyelids seemed to shift, almost imperceptibly.
*Bang!* A ripple of spatial distortion appeared before the handsome young man, and a white-robed figure roughly a foot tall flickered into view within the ice peak, scanning the surroundings with a tense expression. Finally, its gaze came to rest upon the handsome young man's face.
After a long while, the white-robed small figure had found nothing amiss, yet the look of alarm on its face did not subside. Rather, after a brief pause, it formed a hand seal with one hand and moved its mouth silently several times.
Moments later, a white streak of light shot in from the distance. With a flash, a white-robed elder whose appearance matched the small figure's perfectly materialized silently before the ice peak.
"What happened? Why did you summon me here?" the white-robed elder asked the small figure with a grave expression.
"Just now there seemed to be some sort of anomaly. I checked the nearby restrictions but found nothing. Did you detect anything unusual outside?" the small figure said with a straight face.