Chapter 246: Ruling the World (15) — Return to the Homeland (1)

Logically speaking, Hongce had no reason to deceive him.

The man's divination arts were unmatched in the present age. According to Xuan Su, he hadn't made a single mistake in hundreds of years. Divining the secrets of heaven was the very foundation of his livelihood; he absolutely would not make an error. According to the previous calculation, Fang Buxin had still been within a hundred miles of the Dayan Imperial Capital just half a day ago.

From this, it seemed the man must have briefly returned to this place to retrieve what he needed before decisively fleeing.

But half a day was merely the blink of an eye. Even with bizarre and unpredictable methods, how far could a Nascent Soul cultivator flee?

Jiuyou steadied his mind, pondering inwardly.

After half a day, the target would definitely be far from the heart of the imperial capital. Combined with Fang Buxin's deliberate efforts to conceal his aura and cover his tracks, even a Deity Transformation Cultivator like himself would find it as difficult as ascending the heavens to lock onto a sliver of a trail amidst the vast sea of people and sprawling lands.

As long as Fang Buxin hadn't fled this world, even if he escaped to the ends of the earth, he ultimately could not escape Jiuyou's grasp.

His mind made up, a flash of cold killing intent crossed Jiuyou's eyes. He moved without the slightest hesitation. Within a few breaths, he secretly captured several Nascent Soul cultivators stationed at the Precious Heaven Pavilion, once again casting the Dream Guiding Secret Art to pry into their memories.

After several rounds of probing, he finally dug up a dusty incident from the memories of a highly senior elder.

Fang Buxin had hidden from the world for years, but he hadn't been acting alone; he still had old subordinates following him in secret. Years ago, this elder had thoroughly investigated the Dong Family massacre alongside Fang Buxin and a cultivator named Dong Yanwei. Yet after the event, Dong Yanwei had vanished without a trace. His whereabouts remained a mystery, and no one ever learned where he went.

As for Fang Buxin's destination, the elder was equally clueless. He only vaguely remembered that the man's final direction of departure was toward the vast, boundless east.

The east was precisely the territory of Dayong.

Jiuyou's gaze narrowed slightly. He immediately killed the man, shattered the void, and gave chase toward the Dayong territory on the eastern side of Dayan.

But just a few days later, he turned back halfway and returned to the Western Sea region.

The Ganzhou territory was far too vast. Even the Dayong borders, which comprised merely a third of it, stretched across hundreds of millions of li of mountains and rivers, harboring countless mighty peaks, vast seas, secret realms, and perilous lands. For him to aimlessly search for a Nascent Soul cultivator who was deliberately hiding and proficient in concealment and Escape Arts all on his own was like fishing for a needle in the ocean—a futile effort.

Rather than wasting time, it was better to find a shortcut.

After a brief thought, Jiuyou turned back toward the Outer Realm Heavenly Palace and sought out Hongce's residence. Offering a ten-thousand-year spiritual herb as payment, he asked the man to take action once again and recalculate Fang Buxin's fate and whereabouts.

Inside the pavilion, the sky full of starlight rose again, crisscrossing as the power of heavenly secrets slowly flowed.

After a long while, Hongce's slow, unhurried voice finally rang out. He spat out a single word before suddenly pausing: "East..."

His words abruptly ceased.

The normally composed and indifferent old diviner showed a clear look of shock and doubt on his face for the first time. Furrowing his brows, he muttered to himself, "That's not right. The divination just clearly showed this person in the east, but in the blink of an eye, his traces vanished. When I locked onto him again, he had actually shifted to the north out of thin air!"

He looked up into the void, full of confusion. "North of the Western Sea... that desolate, freezing dead zone. Even Deity Transformation Cultivators like us wouldn't dare easily venture deep into it. How could a mere Nascent Soul cultivator cross such perilous lands to reach that place?"

Hearing this, Jiuyou also raised an eyebrow, revealing his surprise. "The Northern Sea Wastelands? That is already deep within the absolute northern dead zones of the Western Sea. Could Fellow Daoist's divination be mistaken?"

His words carried a faint trace of suspicion.

Hongce had divined the secrets of heaven his entire life and was incredibly proud of his attainments in this path. Hearing this, he immediately became indignant. With a rare tone of stubborn certainty, he snapped, "I have calculated heavenly secrets for thousands of years and have never made a mistake! This person is definitely in the dead zones of the West Sea Northern Boundary right now. Fellow Daoist is entirely welcome to go and verify it yourself."

Seeing his firm tone, which didn't seem false at all, Jiuyou's brows relaxed. A faint light shone in his eyes instead. Asking no more questions, he gave Hongce a slight nod before turning to stride away. His figure vanished from the starlit pavilion in an instant.

Only when he could no longer sense Jiuyou's aura at all, confirming the man had truly gone far away, did Hongce finally heave a sigh of relief.

Moving his fingertips slightly, he drew upon the starlight again, quietly running another check on the heavenly secrets. Only after confirming there was no mistake did a somewhat smug smile surface on his face. He muttered to himself, "Just as I said. How could my Dao of divination possibly be wrong?"

But as his voice fell, his brows furrowed once more, and he fell into deep thought.

One moment Fang Buxin had been on the eastern side of Dayan, and the next he had crossed vast territories to flee into the extreme northern dead zones. The two places were separated by far more than a hundred million li. With a Nascent Soul cultivation and without a great divine ability for instantaneous teleportation, it was absolutely impossible to achieve this.

After a brief moment of thought, Hongce's eyes suddenly lit up with realization. He muttered softly in understanding, "So that's how it is... So that's how it is!"

The next day, Jiuyou arrived at the Blood-Demon Valley alone once more.

The Teleportation Array he once relied on to travel between the two places had long been destroyed by his own hands, cutting off the shortcut. However, with his current heaven-reaching cultivation at the Initial Deity Transformation Stage, crossing the entire Blood-Demon Valley was like taking a casual stroll in a courtyard; there was no need for the slightest apprehension.

His figure shot into the blood mist filling the sky, and the familiar savage hostility rushed at his face. Following his old memories from hundreds of years ago, Jiuyou calmly passed through the deep valleys and endless mountains.

Thinking back to those years, he had only been at the Middle Nascent Soul Stage. Having stepped foot into this place while heavily injured, he had taken every step with extreme caution, as if treading on thin ice. Eighth-rank and Tier 9 blood demons could be seen everywhere in the valley, and any single one of them posed a lethal threat to him. At that time, he had held his breath and concealed his aura, sneaking forward inch by inch, terrified that the slightest noise would draw a fatal disaster upon himself.

But today, things remained the same but people had changed.

His Deity Transformation pressure was entirely natural, invisibly permeating the surroundings. Countless blood demons in the valley, regardless of their cultivation—from the lowliest level three or four small fry to the mighty valley demons above the eighth-rank comparable to Nascent Soul experts—felt their minds fiercely quake in sheer terror the moment they distantly sensed this almighty aura that surpassed heaven and earth.

The horde of demons didn't dare to linger in the slightest. They fled into the deep valleys and dark caves one after another, curling up and hiding as they trembled in fear, terrified of catching the eye of this supreme existence.

He traveled all the way unimpeded. Not a single demonic beast dared to block his path or provoke him.

In merely a shichen, Jiuyou easily pierced through the thick layers of blood mist, safely stepping out of the incomparably perilous Blood-Demon Valley to set foot in the secure and peaceful Lingchuan territory.

Looking around, the mountains and rivers were the same as before, and the peaks and valleys remained unchanged. It was as if a hundred years of time had left no trace here.

He gazed into the distance, his eyes landing in the direction of Spiritual Abyss City. He only needed to go through the massive Teleportation Array in the city to return to the Heavenly Abyss Sea that he had been separated from for so long.

Over eight hundred years ago, he had taken root in the Heavenly Abyss Sea to begin his cultivation. That place was the source of his immortal path, carrying the weight of more than half of his years of cultivation.

Now that he had achieved Deity Transformation, stepping on the return journey once more... could it be considered returning home in glory?

He didn't know what kind of scenery the Heavenly Abyss Sea's territories presented now after the flow of time. Even though Jiuyou's Dao heart was indifferent and heartless, having weathered a thousand years of wind and snow, a faint, imperceptible trace of melancholy still quietly lingered at the bottom of his heart as he faced this homeland of his beginnings.