"Very good. Can you find the killer?" the owner of the elderly voice asked in a cold manner.
"Of course. The three of them have all used secret techniques to conceal their spiritual power, but with the ever-present devilish Qi in this nearby area, there's no way for outsiders to completely conceal their auras, so I'll still be able to track their location. The killer has gone in that direction, but his residual aura is already very faint, so they most likely left quite a while ago. On top of that, the devilish Qi currents at high altitudes are very fast, so I'm not confident in my ability to chase them down, given how fast they're traveling," the woman replied in a truthful manner.
"Hmph! Useless!" The elderly man immediately flared up with rage upon hearing this.
The woman could only stand on the spot in a resigned manner.
At this moment, her companion also rose up from the ground below, and he appeared beside the woman after just a few flashes before extending a respectful bow as he delivered his findings. "Master, I've drawn the young master's residual soul out of his body and used a secret technique to simulate the killer's appearance."
"Let me see it," the elderly being instructed in a cold voice.
The horned man gave an affirmative response before sweeping a sleeve through the air, upon which a ball of intertwining grey Qi and black light flew forth, then settled above his head.
He then made a hand seal before casting a series incantation seals toward the ball of light, and the ball exploded to reveal a humanoid projection.
This was a shimmering projection of an azure-robed man with a set of ordinary facial features. There was an inky-black eyeball on his glabella that was swirling with an unsettling black light, and the man was naturally none other than Han Li.
The projection only held its form for the span of a few breaths before it imploded and vanished.
After identifying the third eye on Han Li's glabella, the elderly being gritted his teeth, and said, "A Law Destruction Eye, eh? Looks like he really is the killer, then. Only the spatial abilities of the Law Destruction Eye can prevent my son from teleporting away. Let's go!"
The horned man hesitated momentarily before asking, "Please forgive me for my rudeness, but may I ask if you planning to go after the killer, Master?"
"Were my orders unclear?" the elderly being asked in a cold voice.
The horned man hesitated momentarily again before replying, "Not at all, I just wanted to remind you of the purpose of our trip. The patriarch is going to use this mass devilish Qi influx to completely awaken, and if you get there too late, Tie Mo and the others could turn the patriarch on you by fabricating some slanderous lies. In that case, you can land in some trouble, Master."
"Hmph, that Tie Mo has always been a thorn in my side," the elderly being harrumphed coldly, seemingly in a disdainful manner, but it was quite clear that he was concerned about this as well.
The elderly grappled with an internal conflict for a long while before finally deciding in a begrudging manner, "Alright then, Jiu Ye, you're proficient in tracking and concealment, so I'm going send you after those beings. Find them no matter what you do, then stay on their firmly on their tails while I go and welcome the patriarch as he comes out of seclusion. After that, I'll meet up with you and we'll avenge my son. If you still haven't found those beings by the time I reunite with you, you should know the consequences that await you, right?"
The woman's expression changed slightly upon hearing this, but she then immediately lowered her head as she answered, "Yes, Master."
"Let's go, Wu Qi." The elderly then turned to the horn man before a massive azure-scaled hand reached extended out of the clouds. The hand made a grabbing motion, and the headless body down below was drawn into its grasp before it was withdrawn back into the clouds like lightning.
"Yes, Master," the horned man replied in a respectful before flying up as a ball of red light and disappearing into dark clouds in a flash.
After that, a burst of rumbling rang out from within the dark clouds, following which it rapidly flew away.
Thus, the pointy-eared woman was the only one remaining.
When the dark cloud finally disappeared into the distance, the woman's furry tail curled up, and she raised her head with furrowed brows, clearly very troubled by the difficult order that had been assigned to her.
In the end, she heaved a faint sight and cast her gaze around her. After ascertaining the correct direction, her body swayed, and she shot forth as a streak of silver light.
After flying for over 1,000 feet, the streak of silver light suddenly shuddered before slowly becoming more blurry and indistinct. Following one final flash, the streak of light completely disappeared into thin air.
Elsewhere, a Deity Transformation Stage being was slowly flying alongside a Spatial Tempering Stage being at a low altitude.
Each of them was carrying a palm-sized formation plate, and they were stopping quite regularly to appraise the reactions displayed by those formation plates.
The Deity Transformation Stage being was a young man who appeared to be in his thirties, and he couldn't help but ask, "Martial Uncle Wang, it's been quite a few days already, yet we haven't even caught a glimpse of the immortal zoysia; could it be that we've gone the wrong way?"
His companion was a thin middle-aged man whose attention was entirely fixed on the formation plate in his hand, and he didn't even look up as he replied, "My divination technique doesn't have 100% accuracy, but it's correct at least once 20% of the times. I've conducted divination on several consecutive occasions, and this direction has been pointed out on all of those occasions, so we're definitely going the right away."
"20% isn't exactly a high probability," the young man sighed in a rather dejected manner.
At this moment, the two of them were flying over a pair of tall mountains, and both of them were in a completely identical state to the mountains they'd passed through before. All of the mountains here were inky-black and remarkably smooth with no signs of plant life growing on them whatsoever, as if they were all just piles of smooth rocks.
As such, neither of them paid any heed to those mountains, and they were just about to pass through between them mountains when a startling turn of events abruptly unfolded.
One of the mountain faces that they were passing by suddenly exploded, and a black blade of light that was several hundred feet in length suddenly erupted forth.
"Argh!"
The thin middle-aged was caught completely off guard, and he hurriedly opened his mouth to expel a white shield. The shield swayed before him, then expanded to several tens of feet in size before positioning itself in front of him.
However, in the next instant, the black blade merely continued onward, slicing through the shield and destroying the middle-aged man's body without any impediment.
What was quite curious was that despite how powerful the black blade of light was, it didn't harm the young man at all.
The blade virtually skimmed past the young man's body in a flash before disappearing into the sea of mist down below.
All of a sudden, a loud rumbling boom erupted from within the mist, and a massive bottomless gulf that was over 100 feet wide was sliced into the ground.
The young man may have been a Deity Transformation cultivator, but he clearly didn't have much practical battle experience, and only then did he react to the situation as an expression of horror and panic appeared on his face. He hurriedly made a hand seal in a clumsy manner before transforming into a streak of white light and flying back the way he'd come.
However, right at this moment, a film of grey light suddenly appeared over one of the smooth mountain faces nearby, following which a sinister face that was over 100 feet in size appeared on the mountain face.
The face opened its cavernous mouth, and a burst of yellow light swept forth from within in a frenzy, drawing the white streak of light into the mouth.
Immediately thereafter, the massive mouth swung shut, and a gargantuan body that was as tall as a multistory building slowly emerged from the mountain peak. This was a devilish beast with a gigantic head and a body that resembled a toad.
The devilish beast's entire body was grey and completely smooth, and just its huge head alone took up half of its body, thereby giving it an extremely strange appearance.
However, regardless of how peculiar its appearance, its gargantuan size made it extremely terrifying to behold.
Right at this moment, a humanoid figure that was around 30 to 40 feet tall also slowly flew out of one of the mountain peaks.
Upon closer inspection, one would discover that this humanoid figure was a man with large eyes and bushy eyebrows, contributing to a simple and honest appearance. The man wore a suit of azure armor, and there was a pair of black fleshy wings on his back that were flapping incessantly.
Those wings were extremely massive, and when fully extended, the wingspan stretched to several hundred feet. There was not even a single strand of fur or hair on those wings, but they were filled with silver runes that were flashing erratically.
Looking at them from afar, the wings seemed to be shimmering with a starry light, thereby giving them an extremely mysterious appearance.
As soon as the humanoid figure emerged, the giant toad-liked beast asked, "Master Tie Mo, those were just a pair of Spirit Realm beings; why did we go to the trouble of ambushing them?"
"No particular reason. It's just that it's been a long time since any beings have dared to venture into these mountain ranges, and I found it be quite strange that these two beings would suddenly appear here. This a critical juncture in the patriarch's awakening, so I don't want to see any mishaps taking place during this time. If there are any volatile factors that present themselves, we have to take of them immediately," the winged being replied in an indifferent manner.
"I think you're overthinking things, Master. According to the agreement our patriarch made with those top-grade beings from the Spirit Realm, this time period coincides with the one-month period during which Spirit Realm beings are permitted to enter our mountain ranges, so it's no surprise that someone people would appear here," the giant toad beast replied.
"Alright, Ju Chu, hurry up and use your soul-devouring technique to digest the soul of the being that you just swallowed. I want to know if they're actually just normal devilish beast hunters," the winged being instructed in a cold voice.
"Yes, Master." At the sight of the hint of impatience that had appeared the man's face, the giant toad beast didn't dare to say anything further as it immediately closed its eyes.
All of a sudden, a layer of five-colored light began to swirl around its massive body. At the same time, a series of black runes appeared in the nearby air before also rapidly revolving around it.
After around 10 minutes, the giant toad beast let loose a loud cry, and all of the black runes disappeared into its body before it reopened its eyes.
"Master, I've ascertained the reason why they've entered these mountain ranges; they're searching for a wounded immortal zoysia," Ju Chu reported in a slightly peculiar voice, clearly a little taken aback by its findings.
"Immortal zoysia? What's that?" the giant winged manner asked in a perplexed manner.
"It's a sentient spirit zoysia that can adopt a human form," Ju Chu explained.
"A spirit zoysia that can adopt a human form? Is that true?" The giant winged man shuddered upon hearing this before an elated look appeared on his face.
"I've already completely digested that being's soul, so this information is definitely accurate. Are you interested in such a thing as well, Master?" Ju Chu scratched its head with a massive hand in a befuddled manner.
"Hehe, you know about the humanoid devilish spirit of our Elder Devil Realm, right? This immortal zoysia has the same function," the winged man explained with excitement shimmering in his eyes.
