Never Mind

The sect master’s residence on the floating island was grand and imposing. Pavilions, towers, waterside halls, and covered walkways filled the grounds, each one exquisitely carved and painted.

At that moment, a jade-faced man in plain robes stood by the water beneath one of the covered walkways, casually scattering feed to the spirit fish below.

Although he had a handsome face and appeared to be only a little over thirty, his white hair fell all the way to his ankles. It was simply tied with a green jade crown, and his loose, plain-white Daoist robes looked utterly unadorned. Yet the slowly shifting rosy radiance across the fabric proclaimed its extraordinary value.

Just then, a middle-aged man dressed in the uniform of a personal disciple of the Talisman Sect approached. He bowed respectfully to the man feeding the fish and said, “Sect Master, an urgent message has just arrived from Everlasting Hall. The young master’s identity token has been destroyed.”

As he spoke, he presented a grayish-green jade token with both hands. Its surface was covered in spiderweb-like cracks, and it looked as though it might shatter at any moment.

Daoist Lord Taihua’s eyes did not move. One hand continued to scatter fish feed while he casually raised the other, drawing the cracked jade token into his grasp from across the air. After turning it over a few times, he tossed it back to the middle-aged man.

“He destroyed it himself. There’s no need to interfere.”

The token was paired with the identity token in He Yi’s possession. Once the identity token on He Yi’s end was destroyed, the token here would react as well.

Every personal disciple of the Talisman Sect and those above that rank possessed such an identity token.

Disciples below the personal-disciple rank had a soul lamp lit for them in Everlasting Hall instead. When the person died, the lamp would go out. This allowed the sect to keep track of the lives of its disciples. In special circumstances, the soul lamp could also be used to track them down. It was a form of protection for ordinary disciples, ensuring that outsiders would not dare kill members of the Talisman Sect recklessly.

The middle-aged man hesitated. “But the young master is still young. He’s currently alone in a remote region, and now his identity token is gone. What if something happens to him…”

“Nothing will happen.” Daoist Lord Taihua interrupted him.

He gazed at the fish swimming leisurely through the water and let out a faint sigh. Since they had agreed beforehand, he would not interfere with He Yi’s decision.

He did not say anything more about He Yi. Instead, he turned and instructed the middle-aged man, “Keep a close eye on Wanwantong. Lianying Hall has sent people to the mortal world to investigate the matter of the Ji stones. Don’t let them cause trouble in the mortal world at a time like this.”

The surveillance Wanwantong maintained over the mortal world was no great secret to someone like Daoist Lord Taihua.

“Yes!”

“Good. What about the three Ji cultivators we captured last time? Have they confessed anything useful?”

The middle-aged man shook his head. “No, Sect Master. They seem to be nothing more than small fry. Every time we use soul-searching arts on them, they scream and howl in agony, but whenever we question them normally, they claim not to know anything at all. Yesterday, one of the Ji cultivators seemed to murmur the words ‘Lord Ji Walker’ while unconscious, but once he woke up, he showed no reaction whatsoever to the term.”

After the discovery of the Ji stones at the Talisman Masters’ Grand Assembly, the alliance organization known as Lianying Hall had gradually captured a number of Ji cultivators mingling among the crowds around various major cities in both the northern and southern spirit regions.

However, perhaps because they cultivated using Ji qi—or because they had been placed under some kind of restriction or practiced a special technique—ordinary soul-searching arts were ineffective against them. The moment anyone touched their memories with such an art, those memories would be erased bit by bit.

Whenever that happened, the Ji cultivators would suffer unbearable pain.

Once the soul-searching art stopped, they would return to normal, but the portions of their memories that had been searched would vanish completely.

Moreover, the cultivators performing the soul searches could not obtain even a fragment of memory from them.

As a result, the investigation into the Ji stones progressed extremely slowly.

If not for that, Lianying Hall would never have wanted to send cultivators to the mortal world. After all, such a task was both difficult and thankless. Many people in Lianying Hall also believed that if the cultivation world could not uncover anything, there was no way the mortal world would produce any results.

Only a small number of people felt that since the investigation in the cultivation world had reached a dead end, they might as well try the mortal world.

That was why dispatch orders had been sent to the major sects across the northern and southern spirit regions the previous year.

“Ji Walker…” Daoist Lord Taihua murmured the title softly. He then scattered all the remaining fish feed from his hand. With a turn of his right hand, he produced a storage ring and passed it to the middle-aged man.

“Dao Lord Fenghua of the Chengyuan Sect in Red Mountain Region has been in seclusion for many years. I don’t know whether she has emerged yet. Send this storage ring to her. Once Dao Lord Fenghua comes out of seclusion, tell her that it is a congratulatory gift from me.”

The storage ring was extremely exquisite, with a purple gemstone set into it. A restriction had been placed upon it. Clearly, throughout the northern and southern spirit regions, no one could break Daoist Lord Taihua’s restriction and access what lay inside.

“Yes. I’ll see to it at once.”

The middle-aged man accepted the storage ring and left the sect master’s residence.

At the same time, far away in the mortal world, Lin Xiao—who had been worrying about how he would no longer be able to roam freely in the future—suddenly remembered the sealing formation he had set up around Huanyou Kingdom.

Since people from the cultivation world had come to investigate, they would inevitably visit Huanyou Kingdom, the site where the incident had first erupted. The Ji stone mines would certainly be a major focus of their investigation as well.

That meant he would probably have to remove the sealing formation.

There was even a chance they would question him about the formation’s origin and purpose.

Fortunately, the Azure Lotus Sect had already set a precedent. All he needed to do was claim that it came from his sect’s inheritance.

However, he would have to be more careful in the future. Having one or two sect-inherited treasures that others lacked was acceptable, but if every item he brought out was something no one else possessed, it would inevitably attract unwanted attention.

With that thought, Lin Xiao could no longer sit still. He immediately rose from the ground and hurried alone toward Huanyou Kingdom.

The people from the cultivation world had seen far more than ordinary mortals. It would be best to weaken the formation before they arrived.

Fortunately, Lin Xiao’s cultivation had now reached the Nascent Soul stage, so a round trip to Huanyou Kingdom would not take long. He should be able to return before He Yi emerged from the Heart-Questioning Path.

As he traveled, he sent a voice transmission talisman to Liu Yunan in the sect.

To be safe, it was better to inform him in advance.

Outside the sect, both major and minor events were stirring beneath the surface. Within the sect, everyone was busy with their own affairs as well.

By noon, the disciples on Azure Cloud Peak of the Soaring Immortal Sect had already finished their lessons.

Many disciples gathered together to discuss the various questions raised during class, while some more experienced disciples with a deeper understanding of cultivation remained alone in their rooms, focusing on meditation.

Yuan Jinsheng, who had joined the Soaring Immortal Sect several months earlier, was one of them.

At that moment, he was concentrating on examining his golden core from within. Delight was written all over his face, and he seemed to be murmuring to himself.

“It’s really recovered completely…”

When he had first entered the Soaring Immortal Sect, he had been deeply shocked by the advanced cultivation techniques there. However, because his golden core was damaged, Yuan Jinsheng had still planned to devote most of his time and energy to the four supplemental arts of cultivation, hoping to acquire more cultivation resources for his son.

He had never expected that through day after day of cultivation, his golden core—which had been damaged to the point that it seemed beyond hope of recovery—would actually heal a little more with every passing day, visibly before his very eyes!