It was time to reach out to Qin Wanru. He wondered what her expression would be when she finally saw the long-delayed reply from Yin Wanderer.

Hopefully it wasn’t already too late.

Li Xun stayed on Zhiguan Peak for only four hours before bidding farewell to the immortal masters and preparing to leave the sect.

As he was saying his goodbyes to his fellow disciples, someone—though it’s unclear who thought it was a good idea—brought Ying Ning along, and it turned into quite a ruckus.

There was nothing Li Xun could do about the little girl’s almost obsessive faith in him. He could only go along with it and brush it aside as best he could.

At the same time, thanks to Shan Zhi’s reminder, when he looked at Wenhai again he noticed a certain subtlety in his expression. Still, everyone here was smart enough not to wear their thoughts on their faces, no matter what they might be thinking.

In the end, though, Wenhai quietly pulled him aside, in a way that felt private yet perfectly casual. “Junior Brother Xun, you’ve been up on Zuowang Peak these past few days. Tell me, did you happen to see your Qi Bi?”

Li Xun’s heart gave a little jolt. Apart from himself and Qi Bi, the only one who knew about that was Ming Ji. But Ming Ji was sensible enough not to go tattling to Wenhai and stir up trouble for no reason.

So this had to be Wenhai’s own suspicion. And suspicions like this weren’t something you came up with on a whim. For him to ask so directly, he must have turned the matter over in his head again and again before settling on it.

Interesting...

Li Xun, of course, had no reason to hide anything. He nodded. “I did see her…” he calmly said.

He explained the whole situation openly, leaving out only Shan Zhi and the matter of the so-called “child.” Then a trace of doubt showed on his face. “Senior Sister Qi doesn’t seem very happy. Senior Brother, did something happen?”

It was rare to see Wenhai keep a calm expression. He simply shook his head with a smile, patted Li Xun on the shoulder, and clearly had no intention of saying more.

Li Xun couldn’t help but laugh to himself. Still, he didn’t dwell on it either. After all, the tasks right in front of him already had him running ragged, with no time to worry about extra troubles.

Amid the calls of “Take care” from the others, Li Xun summoned his qi and soared into the sky. In the blink of an eye, Zhiguan Peak was far behind him.

It seemed like all the trouble had arrived in the past few days, because the rest of the journey went surprisingly smoothly. Three days later, Yin Wanderer met up with Qin Wanru.

By then, Qin Wanru was no longer traveling alone. She had with her seven capable men and women cultivators. When she couldn’t reach Yin Wanderer, she had worried about being on her own and sought out reinforcements. The kind of support she could muster from within the Yin-Yang Sect on short notice.

But now that Yin Wanderer had descended like a god of war, the usefulness of those people dropped to almost nothing. When it really came down to a fight, whether they would even get a chance to help would probably depend on Yin Wanderer’s mood.

Setting aside Qin Wanru’s delight at seeing her and the awe on everyone else’s faces, hundreds of li away, Li Xun was caught between worry and relief as he experienced something completely new.

He had sent his puppets that far before, but letting Yin Wanderer, who had regained her own mind, go so far was undeniably risky.

If by any chance Yin Wanderer let something slip, Li Xun could still force her to wipe out everyone who knew, Qin Wanru included. But that would also mean throwing away the leverage he had been building over her for sixty years in a single stroke.

That was why, through the connection of the “Nether Vein,” he poured nearly all of his focus into Yin Wanderer, watching for even the slightest shift so he could cut in immediately if something went wrong.

The “Nether Vein” was the key for a controller to maintain both connection and control over a puppet. In practice, countless qi streams were held within the rules set by the incantation, revealing a subtle, profound mechanism that reaches straight to the source.

For example, right now, with Li Xun’s mind completely locked onto Yin Wanderer, not a single change within Yin Sanren’s body could escape his perception.

This strange sensation was like looking inside his own body, every detail laid bare, giving him the feeling that he was in control of everything.

Right now, he could actually “see” the flow of qi currents within Yin Wanderer’s body.

Under the guidance of this delicate, intricate qi mechanisms, two utterly opposing yet equally formidable forces moved within her. They seemed to have their own boundaries, but more often than not, they interacted and influenced each other in complex ways.

From the clashes and mingling of those two forces, countless finer currents were born and fed into a tightly interwoven system.

With just this single sweep of perception, Li Xun’s understanding of the Yin-Yang Sect’s methods leapt forward. The reason was simple: this channel of awareness was so direct and vivid that it forced insight upon him, whether he wanted it or not.

And beneath this smoothly operating system of qi lay a hidden source. A key that allowed Yin Wanderer to maintain her body in this world. It was a “passageway” connected to the Nine Netherworlds Realm.

Drop by drop, the refined essence of the Nine Netherworld Earth Qi flowed through the passageway, merging into every part of her body. Yet it did not hinder her exchanges with the primordial qi of heaven and earth. The mystery of how the two could exist in harmony was something that could be sensed but not explained, and in that moment Li Xun gained much from it.

According to Qin Wanru’s intelligence, along with the many detection restrictions laid along the way, the Yu Attendant and her group were currently flying more than three thousand zhang above the ground, clearly pushing themselves to travel at full speed.

They had no idea that in less than half a stick of incense they would be plunging straight into the ambush Qin Wanru had so carefully prepared for them.

White clouds drifted across the high sky, but hidden within them lurked killing intent.

The new experience Li Xun had just gained was now proving its worth.

Sensing through a puppet had always been a kind of wondrous “two in one” resonance, but in the end it was still only sensing. It could never compare to the clarity of one’s own six senses—the directness of seeing with your own eyes and hearing with your own ears.

This time, however, after grasping every shift in Yin Wanderer’s qi mechanisms, such clarity came effortlessly.

He observed the world through Yin Wanderer’s eyes without disrupting her in the slightest. Their consciousnesses overlapped and separated at a subtle level, a strange and marvelous state.

Watching the figures in the water mirror grow clearer, Li Xun felt the icy calm of Yin Wanderer’s emotions in his mind. He knew she was completely ready. With her cultivation and the advantage of striking while he was unprepared, the only thing that would be truly surprising was failure.

So right now, Li Xun felt completely at ease. But the moment his eyes swept over something, he suddenly shot to his feet. Oh no!

“Stop!”

Yin Wanderer was linked tightly to Li Xun’s mind, and reacted instantly, her cold voice cutting through the air. The shout jolted the Yin-Yang Sect cultivators hidden in the surrounding clouds. Just as they had settled into their focus, it all shattered at once.

Even so, her name carries weight. Yin Wanderer had once been the master of the sect two generations back. Even if she was now branded a traitor, the shadow of her authority lingered. None of them, no matter how resentful, dared to question her command.

The only one who could was Qin Wanru.

She glanced over, puzzled. “Master, what is it?”

“Let them through for now,” Yin Wanderer said. Her gaze was sharp and cold, like blades of ice. She gestured toward Qin Wanru to look carefully. “Do you see the creature in Chong Yu’s arms?”

“Bloodkiss?”

“Exactly. It seems that brat Li Xun still has some value after all. The intel he brought us included information about this Bloodkiss. By itself, the beast isn’t much. But wherever it shows up, there’s a chance another beast might be nearby...”

Yin Wanderer noticed the focus in Qin Wanru’s eyes and gave a small smile. Leaning close, she whispered a name into her ear. Qin Wanru immediately sucked in a sharp breath.

“Net Throat Demon?” she asked softly. When Yin Wanderer confirmed it, her face paled a little.

She had fought Net Throat Demon before. Of all people, she knew best the kind of terrifying power that monster possessed.

Even with Yin Wanderer at her side as support, the moment Net Throat Demon appeared, that advantage could vanish in an instant.

And if that happened, how could she possibly hope to capture her mother alive, when her mother’s cultivation was no weaker than her own?

While she hesitated, the Yu Attendant and her group had already passed through the ambush and gone far ahead.

Yin Wanderer closed her eyes halfway, making no move to stop them, as if she hadn’t seen a thing.

Qin Wanru’s heart burned with anxiety. She knew this chance would never come again. Unless she had absolute certainty, she couldn’t afford to act rashly. If she failed here, she might never find another opportunity like this for a hundred years.

Once she worked it through in her mind, her mood finally steadied again. She even turned and calmed her restless subordinates.

At the same time, her eyes stayed fixed on Yin Wanderer with a trace of anticipation. She wanted to see how her all-powerful master would break through this predicament.

Only when the Yu Attendant and the others had completely vanished from sight did Yin Wanderer open her eyes. The corners of her crimson lips lifted in a small smile. “In that case, let’s call in reinforcements.”

“Reinforcements?”

...

She didn’t know why, but despite flying high above the clouds with nothing around to hinder them, despite having five powerful cultivators at her side, and even with that terrifying “evil dog” lurking far below, she couldn’t shake a hollow, unsettled feeling inside.

The last time she’d felt like this was that night when chaos broke out at the Pearl Pavilion.

That upheaval had turned the world upside down, and even after a hundred years, just remembering it still made her shiver deep inside.

But that Night of the Pearl Pavilion had been the result of years of careful planning, a blizzard building into an avalanche before it crashed down all at once. That was why it left such a lasting mark. So why was she feeling the same way now?

No matter how she turned it over, Chong Yu couldn’t find an answer. In the end, she told her people to be on guard. At the same time, her slender fingers gently pinched the chin of the “kitten” nestled in her arms.