"It's a cultivator from the Ye family," Ge Tianhao said slowly.
"The Ye family — the imperial Ye family?" Lin Yinping looked surprised.
"Does Fellow Daoist Lin know who sent him? It's actually an Elder surnamed Han from the Ye family, and this Elder Han bears a seventy or eighty percent resemblance to the very man we've been chasing." Ge Tianhao's expression turned peculiar.
"Something like that? Are the two of them the same person? How could that man have gotten involved with the Ye family?" Lin Yinping asked, stunned.
"That's not entirely clear yet. The person I soul-searched was merely a rogue cultivator recruited by the Ye family. But even if the two aren't the same person, they must be closely connected. Otherwise, why would the Ye family send someone to track us without reason? If that man truly is an Elder of the Ye family, this could get rather troublesome." Ge Tianhao's expression grew solemn.
"What, the imperial clan is that powerful? I thought the Ye family was just a clan propped up by your sects. Why are you so wary of them, Brother Ge?" Lin Yinping chuckled.
"The Ye family is no ordinary cultivation clan. Setting aside their status as the imperial clan of Great Jin, hailed as the foremost family, they have six or seven Nascent Soul level elders within the family alone — to say nothing of the large numbers of rogue cultivators they've secretly recruited and the unknown forces they've cultivated behind the scenes. Their true strength should be no less than any major cultivation sect. Take this cultivator who was following us — his own cultivation wasn't high, but that banner flag he commanded was extraordinarily mystical. If Fellow Daoist Lin hadn't possessed the Wondrous Sound Mirror, we really would have had a hard time detecting him sneaking along behind us." Ge Tianhao sighed.
"It's nothing. My technique emphasizes cultivation of spiritual perception. I had a vague sense of something wrong from the moment we left the market, so naturally I used the mirror to investigate. You could say this man simply had bad luck — he happened to run into me while I had the Wondrous Sound Mirror in hand. How do you intend to handle this matter, Brother Ge? Does your sect still intend to honor its agreement with our Temple?" The Tianlan Saintess fixed Ge Tianhao with a steady gaze and asked calmly.
"Heh! The Ye family may indeed wield considerable power, but our sect does not fear anyone. Moreover, this matter involves our sect's guardian treasure and the life of one of our Enforcer Elders. Even if this man truly is a Ye family Elder, our sect will compel the Ye family to hand him over. Rest easy, Fellow Daoist Lin. It's getting late — let's head to the exchange meeting first." Ge Tianhao raised his head, gazing into the distance, and spoke in a flat tone.
"With Brother Ge's assurance, this little woman can rest easy." Lin Yinping nodded with satisfaction.
The three of them immediately transformed into three streaks of escape light and shot away from the area.
What the three did not know was that shortly after they departed, dark light suddenly flickered in a patch of space nearby. Then a figure shimmered, and a young man in blue robes materialized there in an eerie manner, gazing in the direction the three had vanished, laughing coldly without end.
"So the Yin Luo Sect and the Tianlan Sacred Temple have gotten involved with each other. Very well — I'll let you live for now and have you help me find that brat surnamed Han first. The grudge of that hunt from back then — this Sovereign has never forgotten it." After muttering these words, the young man's figure flickered and vanished once more.
……
Han Li found himself enveloped in a green, hazy glow. He looked around at his surroundings and couldn't help but smile bitterly to himself.
He now stood in a vast, somewhat dim hall, where four to five hundred seats were arranged evenly around an open circular area in the center.
What greatly surprised him was that upon entering, a masked cultivator guarding the entrance had affixed a specially-made talisman to his body. As a result, the moment the two of them passed through a simple teleportation formation and arrived here, their figures were immediately shrouded in green radiant light, making them appear half-visible, half-hidden.
Han Li was naturally startled. He looked around and found that dozens of cultivators were already scattered throughout the space — some standing, some sitting. These people were similarly wrapped in radiant light of various colors, making it impossible to discern their true appearances.
Curiosity piqued, Han Li casually took a seat in a corner and discreetly extended his spiritual sense toward a nearby person, wondering whether it could penetrate through the other's cloak of light.
To his horror, these cloaks of light seemed almost solid — no matter how powerfully he pressed his spiritual sense against them, it was effortlessly deflected. Though he hadn't unleashed the full strength of his spiritual sense, he estimated that further intensifying it would yield little effect.
Han Li's thoughts shifted, and he instinctively swept his spiritual sense across the entire hall. He discovered that the whole hall seemed to be under the influence of a peculiar formation. While this formation didn't manifest any powerful restrictions, the spiritual energy it emitted resonated faintly with the radiant light on everyone's body.
Han Li himself was well-versed in the ways of talismans and formations. After a brief moment of contemplation, he grasped the underlying principle and couldn't help but marvel inwardly.
Clearly, these talismans were specifically designed to work in conjunction with this peculiar formation. Once the talismans were affixed, entering the formation's range would automatically trigger their concealing effect. In this way, no matter how powerful a cultivator's spiritual sense might be, it naturally could not contend against the entire formation.
This way, the old monsters attending the exchange could put their misgivings aside, trade their items boldly, and not fear running into enemies at the meeting or being targeted by someone over the goods they exchanged.
Han Li felt somewhat relieved as well. His earlier concern about Yin Luo Sect cultivators also attending the exchange meeting dissipated entirely. He placed the control disc in his hand on the table before him, settled into his chair, and closed his eyes to rest.
Time passed bit by bit, and the cultivators teleporting into the hall gradually increased in number.
When Han Li opened his eyes again, not only had the hall grown to nearly two hundred cultivators, but a white jade table several zhang wide had also appeared on the circular clearing in the center — no one knew when it had been placed there.
Han Li narrowed his eyes, gazing ahead in silence.
Before long, a flash of spiritual light appeared near the white jade table, and a figure cloaked in white radiant light suddenly materialized behind it.