Although Wei Tu and Cao Mi hadnât managed to figure out who Hong Jingâs backup was, or whether she knew about the space tunnel and the Great Cang Immortal Cultivation Realm, they were certain the cave wouldnât be dangerous for the time being.
After all, the best chance for Hong Jing to make a move was yesterday, right after they came out of the space tunnelâduring their âweakened phase.â
Since she didnât strike then and instead tried to lie and trick them, it proved that her current strength wasnât enough to threaten or defeat them. In other words, Hong Jingâs backup was definitely not nearby, and most likely hadnât even formed a deep alliance with her or learned about the space tunnel.
âŠ
Once Cao Mi turned cold and cut her off emotionally, Hong Jing didnât hesitate. She hardened her heart and prepared to self-destruct her Nascent Soul.
Even though Wei Tu had the Yuan Gravity Light to slow her self-destruction, it could only delay it by at most half a day.
So, Wei Tu didnât dare waste time. He immediately sat cross-legged and started preparing to soul-search Hong Jingâs Nascent Soul.
Half a day might seem long, but for soul-searching a Nascent Soul cultivator of the same realm, it was far from enough.
Thatâs why Wei Tu narrowed the soul-searching down to four main points:
1. Was Ancestor Luoâs situation real? Was anything being hidden?
2. Who was Hong Jingâs ally? Why did she join forces with them to ambush him and Cao Mi?
3. Had Hong Jing leaked the space tunnelâs secret to cultivators of the overseas cultivation world?
4. Was the info about the Condensed Soul Pill true or false?
Other than the first point, the remaining three were of utmost importance to Wei Tu.
But just as he was about to use the high-grade soul-searching secret art âHidden Spirit Boat Technique,â Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng suddenly spoke up. He said he could perfectly soul-search Hong Jing without missing a thing.
"My soul might be weak, but its essence far surpasses Hong Jingâs. And now that Daoist Weiâs Yuan Gravity Light has her restrained, soul-searching her will be a piece of cake."
Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng let out a light laugh, looking proud of himself.
But Wei Tu didnât show even a flicker of interest. He gave Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng a cold glance and said flatly, "No need to trouble you, Daoist. Iâd rather handle it myself. If youâd be kind enough to teach me some soul-searching techniques to improve my chances, Iâd be very grateful."
Wei Tu wasnât stupid.
Even though Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng now had neither body nor Nascent Soul and only a weak remnant soul left, looking harmless and powerless, that was only on the surface.
More than twenty years ago, if Wei Tu hadnât intervened, Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng wouldâve already possessed Sun Chixinâs body and successfully reincarnated.
A tiger with its teeth pulled is still a tiger!
There was no way Wei Tu would foolishly give Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng another chance to stir up troubleâby letting his Dragon Glaze Pearl get close to Hong Jingâs Nascent Soul.
If Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng turned on him, the threat would be far worse than whatever helper Hong Jing had waiting in the wings.
Wei Tu would rather accept incomplete information from the soul-searching than let Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng have even a sliver of opportunity to escape or betray him.
Hearing Wei Tuâs words, Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng kept smiling. He cursed Wei Tu in his heartââwhat a sly little bratââthen slinked back into the Dragon Glaze Pearl, staying silent.
Seeing that Ancestor ChĂŹlĂłng had quieted down, Wei Tuâs gaze flickered slightly, but he ignored him.
Then he murmured, âHidden Spirit Boat Technique,â and began the soul-searching.
Just as he expected, things didnât go smoothly.
For the first two points, Hong Jing had clearly been on guard. Every time he tried to probe into those areas, the attempt failed.
Worse yet, each time he touched on a secret, her Nascent Soulâs collapse would accelerateâby several times.
With no other choice, Wei Tu shifted his focus to the remaining two points.
These werenât tightly guarded secrets, so his investigation went smoothly.
The results were also favorable to him.
âTry again on the first two.â Wei Tu took a deep breath, gathered his divine sense, and started a second round of soul-searching.
Though his soul hadnât been damaged as badly as Cao Miâs during the space tunnel transit, heâd still taken quite a hit due to being unprepared.
Later, when working together with Cao Mi to control the Yin-Yang Demon Corpse, heâd burned through even more divine sense.
Now, just being able to squeeze out enough divine sense to soul-search a fellow Nascent Soul cultivator was already impressive.
Half a day passed quickly.
When Hong Jingâs Nascent Soul completely dissolved, Wei Tu frowned, his face thoughtful.
His second attempt at soul-searching yielded the same resultâfragments of truth, still incomplete.
But⊠there was an unexpected gain.
âWangxi Island.â Wei Tu exhaled a heavy breath and silently repeated the name in his mind.
That island was the place where, over a decade ago, both Hong Jing and Ancestor Luo had met with disaster.
After visiting the island, Hong Jingâs personality had drastically changed. She tricked him and Cao Mi into coming to the overseas cultivation world in order to take them out.
âWangxi Island is the key to Ancestor Luoâs disappearance and Hong Jingâs betrayal. If I want to uncover the truth behind it all, Iâll have to go there.â
âBut for now, getting my hands on the Condensed Soul Pill is more urgent.â
That was Wei Tuâs private thought.
Truth be told, he didnât care much whether Ancestor Luo lived or died. Her fate had little to do with him.
If it werenât for her connection to Cao Mi, he wouldnât have bothered probing into it during the soul-search.
âŠ
After taking a moment to adjust his breathing, Wei Tu walked from outside the cave back in, ready to call Cao Mi and leave together.
When they emerged from the space tunnel, he had already scanned this area with his divine sense.
It was an uninhabited island.
Sparse in spiritual energyâdidnât even count as a first-rank spirit land.
So aside from using it as a temporary stop between the two cultivation realms, staying here longer meant nothing to him.
But just as he was considering how to head toward Yuanshi Island in the Red Algae Sea and bid for the Condensed Soul Pill Hong Jing had mentioned, he noticed something was wrong with Cao Mi.
She was sitting cross-legged, her body covered in layers of frost. If not for the slight rise and fall of her chest, she wouldâve looked exactly like a corpse frozen to death in a snowy plain.
âShe sealed her seven apertures⊠and blocked her five senses?â
Wei Tu stepped closer and scanned her condition with divine sense, his brow deeply furrowed.
Back in the space tunnel, Cao Mi had used this same technique to protect herselfâsealing off her senses to avoid damage from the spatial pull on her soul.
But now, there was no such danger.
That meant, to Wei Tuâs eyes, she had only one reason to use this method again.
Her soul injury was far too severeâso bad it couldnât heal on its own.
So she could only freeze herself like this, using the technique to delay the onset of her wounds.
âYou really trust me.â Wei Tu couldnât help shaking his head, a thought rising in his heart.
This method was indeed effective.
But under normal circumstances, unless the surroundings were absolutely safe, no cultivator would willingly put themselves in such a completely defenseless state.