Chapter 249: King of the World (18) - Xiao Yi

Jiuyou condensed into a brilliant beam of divine light, suddenly tearing across the vast horizon. Crossing thousands of li in an instant, his figure melted into the distant edge of the azure sea and sky.

As he traveled via his escape art, he kept his mind calm, meticulously sorting through every clue he had.

Previously, using the Dream Guiding Secret Art to interrogate the Precious Heaven Pavilion's Nascent Soul cultivator had still failed to lock onto Fang Buxin's exact whereabouts. The man's movements were exceedingly bizarre: one moment he was at the eastern borders of Dayong, and the next, he had crossed a massive expanse of territory to appear out of thin air in the extreme northern deadlands of the Western Sea.

Let alone a Nascent Soul expert, even a Deity Transformation Cultivator absolutely did not possess such a heaven-defying escape art.

The only reasonable explanation was that the man had, by some stroke of luck, stumbled across an Ancient Teleportation Array. It just so happened that the great array of Spiritual Abyss City had been activated not long ago, making the timeline a perfect match.

This also confirmed his suspicion: Ganzhou's Western Sea was highly likely connected to the Heavenly Abyss Sea. The two places were simply too far apart—separated by tens of millions of li at the very least.

A faint chill condensed in the depths of Jiuyou's eyes.

For Fang Buxin to go to such lengths, fleeing in a panic across thousands of li, he must have heard the news of Jiuyou's breakthrough to Deity Transformation. Given their past grudges, the man knew Jiuyou's temperament and methods perfectly well. Knowing he was no match, Fang Buxin had actively avoided his edge the entire way, fleeing from Ganzhou to the Heavenly Abyss Sea. Cunning and secretive, his actions were cautious to the extreme.

Jiuyou's purposes in returning to the Heavenly Abyss Sea this time were absolutely clear.

First, to attend that ten-year Deity Transformation pact; second, to leverage the power of his home territory to thoroughly track down Fang Buxin.

His thoughts settling, he recalled the new landscape of the Heavenly Abyss Sea that he had gleaned from the Nascent Soul cultivator's memories.

After hundreds of years, the two great domains of Lingchuan and the Heavenly Abyss Sea now had a combined total of only seven late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators presiding over them. Lingchuan accounted for four, leaving the Heavenly Abyss Sea with a mere three.

And today, the Heavenly Abyss Sea's three late-stage Nascent Soul Grand Cultivators were no longer the familiar figures of the past. Gu Xuanzhou, Wei Tianhe, and He Taiyi had all successively passed away over those centuries.

Among the three, He Taiyi was the last to pass away. He had governed the Heaven and Earth Alliance, maintaining a stance of neutrality and non-contention throughout his life. Leaning neither toward the Righteous Path nor the Demonic Path, he had always kept himself aloof from worldly disputes.

Back then, after Jiuyou rose from the Demonic Path Alliance and became famous in a single battle, he had remained in seclusion for years, rarely appearing in the world. As time passed, all cultivators came to tacitly assume he had long since left the Demonic Path, with some even guessing that he had already perished.

Without his peak-level combat strength serving as a deterrent, the once-flourishing Demonic Path Alliance—which had boasted two late-stage Nascent Soul Grand Cultivators presiding over it—gradually weakened, suffering repeated checks and suppression from all sides. After the old three-way checks and balances were worn down over time, the landscape ultimately returned to a delicate tripartite balance of power among the Righteous Path, the Demonic Path, and the Heaven and Earth Alliance.

Following He Taiyi's death, the Righteous Path and the Demonic Path each produced a newly advanced late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator to fill the void in top-tier combat strength. Even though the Heaven and Earth Alliance temporarily lacked a peak expert to hold the line, the other two factions strictly observed a tacit understanding. Neither took the opportunity to provoke conflict or break the status quo, maintaining a stable situation for hundreds of years.

Back then, the Demonic Path had only managed to preserve its vitality thanks to Mo Tiancheng.

At the desperate juncture when his lifespan was nearing its end, the man fought tooth and nail to break through his bottlenecks. He actually succeeded in advancing to the late-stage Nascent Soul realm, single-handedly holding the fort for the Demonic Path Alliance for two hundred years. Alas, lifespan was ordained by heaven and difficult for mortal effort to reverse. Ultimately, two centuries ago, his oil ran dry and his lamp went out, and he passed away in meditation.

To this day, the late-stage Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator who governed the entire Demonic Path Alliance also hailed from Endless Island. His name was Xiao Yi.

"Xiao Yi..."

Flying through the sky, Jiuyou muttered this name under his breath, a very faint impression brushing across his mind.

In terms of seniority, Xiao Yi could be considered a junior of his lineage separated by a few generations, carrying a layer of connection as the adopted son of his grand-disciple.

Yet the two had almost no interaction. In this life, they had only met hastily once; they could hardly be considered acquainted, much less share the slightest bond. If not for that lineage connection, they would be virtual strangers.

To think this person had actually managed to reach the late-stage Nascent Soul realm—he certainly hadn't disgraced him.

At this thought, a gleam of realization flashed through Jiuyou's eyes, and a plan instantly formed in his mind.

Fang Buxin was hiding within the massive Heavenly Abyss Sea. Its mountains and seas were vast, its secret realms countless. Relying on himself alone to search was no different from finding a needle in a haystack—it would be a sheer waste of time and effort.

However, Xiao Yi governed the Demonic Path Alliance and commanded the Endless Island lineage. He held the most massive network of intelligence operatives and factional ties in the entire sea region.

If utilized well, finding the man surnamed Fang was only a matter of time.

"Since it's him, that actually works out perfectly."

Jiuyou's expression was indifferent, devoid of the slightest ripple.

Borrowing the forces under his junior to conduct a carpet-search for a single person's tracks—to a Deity Transformation Cultivator like him, this was an entirely reasonable and natural course of action.

Without hesitation, his divine light shifted. Adjusting his flight path, he sped straight toward the vast sea region where Endless Island was located.

...

At the same time, in the Heavenly Abyss Sea, on Endless Island.

Deep in the mid-levels of Endless Mountain, a heavily fortified, thoroughly restricted secret chamber sat in total silence. Two figures sat quietly inside. The low sounds of their conversation slowly drifted out, dissipating into the surrounding array formations.

A solemn black-robed cultivator bowed his head, reporting in a deep voice to the middle-aged man sitting cross-legged in the center of the chamber. His tone carried an unconcealable gravity.

"Alliance Leader, the situation is becoming increasingly bizarre. The day before yesterday, Li Tongdao of the Heaven and Earth Alliance went out to temper himself and has yet to return. I fear he has already been murdered. This is the fourth Middle Nascent Soul stage cultivator to inexplicably vanish in the Heavenly Abyss Sea recently. The entire process left absolutely no traces, and we cannot find a single clue about the perpetrator."

He paused slightly, voicing the critical suspicion obtained from his investigations.

"This subordinate has examined the residual auras in the regions where the four men last appeared. The attacker's cultivation is unfathomable, at least at the late-stage Nascent Soul realm, and they are proficient in a bizarre Demonic Path cultivation method that belongs neither to our Heavenly Abyss Sea nor Lingchuan. As for the other six late-stage Nascent Soul Grand Cultivators across the Heavenly Abyss Sea and Lingchuan, all of them have verified alibis and clear whereabouts. This subordinate suspects there is an extremely high chance this person is a foreign cultivator from Ganzhou."

Hearing this, the middle-aged man in the center of the chamber slowly opened his eyes.

His face was calm and reserved, his brow settled with the weathered experience of hundreds of years of cultivation. He was precisely the late-stage Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator who currently governed the Demonic Path Alliance and Endless Island—Xiao Yi.

His expression was placid. After hearing the report, he merely gave a slight nod and gently waved his hand.

The black-robed cultivator didn't dare say another word. Bowing in salute, he quietly retreated from the secret chamber. The heavy stone door slowly closed, once again isolating all sound from inside and out.

Within the spacious secret chamber, Xiao Yi was left sitting alone.

Tapping his fingertips lightly against his knee, he murmured repeatedly in a low voice, "Ganzhou... Ganzhou..."

This name was not unfamiliar to him. Over three hundred years ago, on the eve of his passing, Senior Gu—a veteran Grand Cultivator of the Demonic Path Alliance—had specifically mentioned to him that their Grand Ancestor Jiuyou might have traveled far to the prosperous and expansive Ganzhou to cultivate back in the day, remaining completely unheard from ever since.

For hundreds of years, Ganzhou had always remained a mysterious, distant, top-tier immortal cultivation domain in his heart.

Right as he was immersed in these thoughts, his chest suddenly underwent a violent tremor!

An inexplicable sense of oppression originating from the depths of his divine soul crashed down, enveloping his entire body. His heartbeat instantly spiraled out of control, as if an invisible giant hand had firmly grasped his mind from across space.

Xiao Yi's expression drastically changed. He fiercely looked up, his gaze piercing through the heavy dome of the stone chamber and the layers of restrictive arrays across the mountain, staring intently into the depths of the void.

Somewhere in the unseen depths, a pair of formless eyes overlooking all living beings had crossed the barriers of mountains and seas. Accurately penetrating all obstacles, they firmly locked onto his secret chamber—and firmly locked onto him.