Gu Qiulong's face underwent a series of changes between gloom and brightness as he once again pulled out a handful of spirit stones from his storage bag to replace the spent ones.
This scene had unfolded several times already, and Gu Qiulong had nearly spent over two thousand spirit stones. His usually calm and composed face now bore furrowed brows and was drenched in sweat.
On his ninth replacement of the array's spirit stones, nearly depleting his storage bag, an unexpected change occurred. Accompanied by a thunderous boom from above, dazzling lightning bolts suddenly erupted from the purple wooden column, cascading down swiftly as if drawing in the natural lightning from outside, causing the entire dungeon space to shake violently.
The purple array on the stone platform also brightened abruptly, its operation speeding up manifold. Streams of white spiritual power surged out from the spirit stones, infusing into the Winged Bird Egg.
The blinding arcs of electricity on the purple column were absorbed by the array on the platform, transforming them into a gentler thunderous energy, which was then poured entirely into the Winged Bird Egg.
The Winged Bird Egg emitted streaks of purple electricity, its surface patterns flickering in and out of visibility, and the blood color faded significantly.
Witnessing this, Gu Qiulong's eyes were fixed on the blood egg, his face expressing extreme tension.
Yuan Ming, having seen this unfold, had a basic understanding of the situation. It turned out that Gu Qiulong, coveting the Winged Bird Egg, had kidnapped Gu Qiuming to this place.
When he first arrived in Xiaohu City, he didn't immediately go to the Zhenling Pavilion to incubate the egg, fearing this very scenario. It was only after encountering his old acquaintance, Gu Qiuming, that he felt at ease to visit. Unexpectedly, things still progressed in the direction he had worried about.
The Winged Bird Egg was not only exceedingly precious but also a gift from Xiying. Naturally, he couldn't just abandon it. His mind raced with thoughts as he began to consider his options.
However, after much contemplation, he still had no clear lead, especially since finding the other party's location was the first challenge, which proved to be quite a headache.
Even though the Precious Spirit Sect wasn't as formidable as Changchun Temple, it still housed Nascent Soul stage cultivators, and he, an outsider, couldn't just search around freely.
"Gu Qiulong, if you're willing to return the egg, I can pretend this never happened. Moreover, as a reward, I can tell you the whereabouts of another thunder-attribute spiritual beast," Gu Qiuming suddenly opened his eyes and said.
"What spiritual beast?" Gu Qiulong turned and asked in surprise.
"The Thunderclap Beast!" Gu Qiuming said slowly.
"Really? A Thunderclap Beast? Where?" Gu Qiulong was overjoyed, his attention momentarily diverted from the blood egg.
The Thunderclap Beast was a rare thunder-attribute demon beast, whose strength could reach impressive levels when mature, making it no less valuable than the Winged Bird as a spiritual beast.
"It's in the Ruins Swamp, less than a hundred miles from here. The Thunderclap Beast is still a juvenile, just entering the second level. I stumbled upon its tracks by chance. As long as you return the Winged Bird Egg to Brother Ha-Gong, I will take you to capture that Thunderclap Beast," Gu Qiuming said.
Upon hearing this, Yuan Ming's eyes lit up. The Precious Spirit Sect's headquarters was quite far from Xiaohu City and the Ruins Swamp, about two hundred miles away, which meant that Gu Qiuming and the other were not at the Precious Spirit Sect!
He had previously assumed they were somewhere within the Precious Spirit Sect, which left him at a loss. If the two were outside, the situation would be much easier to handle.
Yuan Ming continued to listen to their conversation while focusing on the dungeon environment, trying to glean some clues.
The dungeon was extremely damp, with water droplets continuously forming on the walls and trickling down. Such a moist environment suggested they were indeed near the Ruins Swamp. But beyond that, there were no other useful indicators.
Yuan Ming exerted his spiritual consciousness, attempting to spread it out, but to no avail. It was as if there was an invisible barrier around his consciousness, preventing it from breaking through.
"It seems that the spread of my consciousness before was indeed due to the improved quality of the Black Incense." Yuan Ming thought to himself.
At that moment, he suddenly looked upwards.
The long tolling of the bell came from above, followed by four more tolls, then seven, eight, and twelve tolls respectively.
"Rise, fall four, urgent seven, slow eight, even twelve… Is there a Taoist temple nearby?" Yuan Ming recognized the source of the bell sounds. Just as he was about to continue his investigation, his vision suddenly plunged into darkness as the possession time ended.
***
Yuan Ming's consciousness returned to his body, and after a moment of silence, he got up and left the Zhenling Pavilion. He did not summon the Qingyun Crane or summon any magical instruments but instead used the Wind Agility Technique to rush towards Xiaohu City.
At the same time, a Taoist figure also left the Precious Spirit Sect quietly, following Yuan Ming from a distance, revealed to be a disciple of the sect.
The leader was a bald man, with the other two being a skinny young man and a heavily made-up young woman. The bald man had reached the Foundation Establishment stage, while the skinny young man and the young woman were both at the peak of Qi refining.
The group was clearly using some concealment talismans or magical instruments, making their presence barely noticeable and their figures blending seamlessly with the surrounding environment.
Yuan Ming quickly advanced forty or fifty miles, and a dense forest of black pines appeared nearby. He suddenly changed direction and entered the forest. The followers were taken aback and hurriedly quickened their pace, also entering the black pine forest, but Yuan Ming's trace was already gone.
"Could he have discovered us? Trying to escape?" The skinny young man's face turned sour.
"Did your Verdant Bird notice anything?" The bald man turned to the young woman.
The woman put a finger to her lips and whistled. A green sparrow flew down from a nearby tree and perched on the young woman's shoulder, chirping a few times.
"The Verdant Bird says he walked under this big tree and then suddenly disappeared," the woman said.
"Suddenly disappeared? Could he have used a concealment spell…" The bald man's sparse eyebrows furrowed as he muttered to himself.
Before he could finish, his legs suddenly weakened, and his body began to sway.
"Not good, we've been poisoned…" The bald man's face changed drastically. The skinny young man and the young woman were in the same predicament, both collapsing one after the other, falling unconscious. The green sparrow also suffered the same fate.
The bald man felt a heavy dizziness and a hazy consciousness, struggling to reach for his storage bag at his waist, seemingly trying to retrieve something. However, his hand only extended halfway before his consciousness completely blurred, and he collapsed to the ground.
Yuan Ming, cloaked in a gray mantle, emerged from behind the large tree, holding the Stealing Heaven Cauldron with a burnt-out incense stick inside.
This was a Seven-Step Down Enchanting Incense, into which he had mixed the poisonous flowers obtained from Hua Zhi, significantly enhancing the incense's toxicity. The effects were indeed impressive, even the Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, the bald man, was easily subdued.
Yuan Ming put away the Stealing Heaven Cauldron and approached the bald man, placing a hand on top of his head and employing the Soul Search skill, quickly making a discovery. The bald man, named Zheng Da, was originally a rogue cultivator near Xiaohu City, who later ingratiated himself with Gu Qiulong and joined the Precious Spirit Sect, often doing Gu Qiulong's dirty work.
This time, he and the other two were ordered by Gu Qiulong to monitor Yuan Ming and then, upon receiving further instructions from Gu Qiulong, to kill Yuan Ming and silence him.
Yuan Ming wasn't angry; instead, a look of joy appeared on his face. Zheng Da had received Gu Qiulong's order a few days ago, meeting in a forest outside the Precious Spirit Sect. After Gu Qiulong gave his instructions, he flew towards the southwest, in the direction of the Ruins Swamp. Gu Qiulong might not have actually gone southwest, but it was an important clue to consider.
Afterward, Yuan Ming applied the Soul Search to the other two, learning information far less detailed than Zheng Da's, but the gist was similar. He then took their storage magical instruments, flicked a water arrow, piercing through their foreheads. Since they intended to kill him, Yuan Ming naturally wouldn't show mercy.
He then cast a fireball to turn the bodies to ashes and scattered them. After carefully erasing all traces in the forest, he stopped.
Having finished, Yuan Ming took out a map of the area around Xiaohu City and began searching southwest from the Precious Spirit Sect. His gaze paused on a Taoist temple near the Ruins Swamp to the southwest of the sect, named Shuiyun Temple.
"It must be there!" Without delay, he headed in that direction.
***
Shuiyun Temple was a mundane Taoist temple, nestled between two small mountains, with a grand mountain gate and majestic halls, covering an area of twenty acres, bustling with worshippers. Now that the sky had completely darkened, many rooms within the temple were still lit.
Yuan Ming didn't rashly enter but stopped outside Shuiyun Temple, sending out a soul crow to scout inside while summoning Hua Zhi to search underground.
As time ticked by, neither the soul crow nor Hua Zhi had any success.
Just as Yuan Ming was growing impatient, dark clouds gathered low in the sky, and a torrential downpour began. A thick bolt of lightning shot out from the clouds, tearing through the pitch-black night.
The tail end of the lightning swept past the back of Shuiyun Temple and then made a sudden turn as if attracted by something.
Recalling the scene he had witnessed during possession, Yuan Ming's eyes lit up. He immediately summoned a white jade flying shuttle and darted towards that location, simultaneously spreading his spiritual consciousness and soon making a discovery.
"It's indeed here!" He stopped and looked towards a high ground not far away.
There, a purple-black wooden column protruded from the ground, the very same one he had seen during possession, its top now charred. Yuan Ming took out a yellow talisman, an Earth Escape Talisman he had purchased at a high price from a talisman shop in Xiaohu City, with effects similar to an Earth Travel Talisman, allowing one to move underground.
He called back the two soul crows, leaving only one outside for vigilance, and activated the Earth Escape Talisman to burrow underground. Hua Zhi also arrived at the back mountain and began to infiltrate from another side.
Yuan Ming followed the lightning-attracting purple wood downward, easily finding the underground chamber. He concealed himself in a corner and stealthily peered into the dungeon.
Inside the dungeon, Gu Qiulong was still fervently operating the array to incubate the Winged Bird Egg, oblivious to the commotion outside.
Gu Qiuming was still locked in the dungeon, his clothes disheveled and his face bruised, indicating that their negotiation had failed, and he had been beaten.
The Winged Bird Egg, now at the center of the array, had undergone a significant transformation. The blood color on the shell had completely vanished, replaced by a bright silver color with streaks of lightning moving across it.
Moreover, two fine cracks had appeared on the shell, indicating that it was about to hatch.
Proofreader & Editor: Peter Pan