Yu Ci focused intently, but the carriage remained silent save for Bi Chao's voice drifting through the air:
“The only difference between you and
lies in the words ‘sincere effort.’ The routine matters within the sect aren’t difficult—it all depends on whether one applies oneself. Before coming here, I reviewed the files of everyone in the dock. When I interacted with Yu Ci, I did so with a public spirit and a results-oriented mindset. I made connections when needed, lowered my stance when necessary, and didn’t look down on you just because our positions differ so greatly. If I can do that, why can’t you?”
The luxurious carriage continued its journey, gradually pulling farther away from the Sky Rift Valley dock. Inside the quiet chamber, Yu Ci was stunned.
What a bold claim from Bi Chao!
He wasn’t particularly surprised by her change in deanor. If the envoy sent by the Rakshasa Sect to this region didn’t show so edge, Yu Ci would have found it strange. How could such a sect beco one of the elite sects in the world otherwise? What was truly odd was—who was Bi Chao talking to? That feeling…
Yu Ci listened more carefully, but just then, a distant roar echoed through the air. The sound waves carried far; even the Fish Dragon heard it inside the carriage, and Bi Chao clearly noticed it too.
“Stop the carriage!”
At her command, the opulent vehicle imdiately slowed and pulled to the roadside. There ca the faint sounds of a curtain lifting and jade feet stepping to the ground—Bi Chao had exited the carriage, though Yu Ci couldn’t tell what she was up to.
Yu Ci quickly adjusted the star essence form within the Fish Dragon’s spirit and shifted to “visual mode.” Vivid colors unfolded once again. As the image ca into focus, Yu Ci “saw” Bi Chao standing outside the carriage, gazing westward toward the horizon. After aligning the direction, he realized it was where the roars ca from—where birds and beasts had been agitated.
Bi Chao was interested in that too? Just as he was thinking this, he saw her nod at the incense servant. Then, astonishingly, both of them soared into the sky and headed in that direction.
Though separated by dozens of miles, Yu Ci’s heart tightened. Bi Chao’s cultivation wasn’t surprising—it was only natural for a Core Refinent cultivator to fly with their magical artifact. But that incense servant? What was going on there?
Yu Ci wanted the Fish Dragon to follow, but after a quick reconsideration, he had the creature sneak behind the carriage curtain and peek inside. From the Fish Dragon’s perspective, Yu Ci once again confird—there was no third person in the carriage!
He took a deep breath and commanded the Fish Dragon to ascend. The little guy was incredibly fast. Over the past two months, it had mostly recovered from the loss of its “Innate Qi of the Heavenly Dragon.” Although it hadn’t regained its powerful instincts, its flight speed had recovered to nearly seventy or eighty percent.
However, due to the earlier delay, the sky was now empty—Bi Chao and the incense servant had already vanished. While the Fish Dragon was faster than the two, its sensing range was limited. Tracking a target under these conditions was simply out of the question.
Yu Ci had no choice but to let the Fish Dragon continue flying westward, hoping that the disturbance's origin wasn’t more than fifty miles away.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as he hoped. The incident had indeed occurred within fifty miles. There, the Fish Dragon once again caught sight of Bi Chao and the incense servant. But the area was already a ss—trees flattened, a few beast corpses scattered around. Whatever caused the destruction had already fled.
Bi Chao inspected the area briefly, seemingly discovered sothing, then flew westward again. In a blink, she was over fifty miles away—beyond the Fish Dragon’s sensing range. Yu Ci had no choice but to recall the creature and have it wait beside the carriage. Whatever happened over there, Bi Chao and the incense servant would eventually return, right?
After a while, soone did return—but it was only the incense servant. Bi Chao was nowhere to be seen.
“What’s going on?”
Puzzled, Yu Ci finally got a chance to observe the person more closely. The figure was cloaked in a large mantle that concealed their appearance and build, though they seed rather tall. It wasn't the Divine Map day, and the Fish Dragon’s sensing was limited—so it couldn’t penetrate the cloak.
Then again, even with the Divine Map, the incense servant clearly had Core Refinent cultivation. Just the mist of that level alone would render the Divine Map useless. It was better to use star essence vision now—though the field of view was limited, it still yielded so information.
These days, while studying the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, Yu Ci increasingly felt that although the Divine Map had once been wondrous, it relied entirely on the mirror’s power without any usable technique. Once the mirror changed, the Map would beco completely useless. Now, even though the Divine Map was gone, the subsequent techniques—like spirit control over the mirror and star essence vision—were far more practical.
If he continued down this path, thoroughly understanding the mirror’s mystical core and reconstructing the Divine Map from that foundation wasn’t out of the question.
That thought distracted him montarily, and when he ca back to his senses, he saw that the incense servant had sohow walked away from the carriage and was now strolling along the mountain road, following the wheel tracks.
Yu Ci felt sothing was off. Previously, the incense servant had moved only at Bi Chao’s command, showing no extraneous behavior. After seeing this so many tis, Yu Ci had nearly believed the rumors—that this person was a puppet. But now, seeing such human-like movent for the first ti, the tiny doubt in his heart spread like a dark cloud.
Yu Ci observed through the Fish Dragon, trying to gather more details. But the incense servant seed to be deliberately ssing with him—after walking a dozen steps, she suddenly turned and leaped onto the carriage shaft like a ghost. The four Cloud-Treading Beasts in front, highly intelligent, imdiately started moving again. The carriage rumbled over mountains, continuing eastward.
They weren’t waiting for Bi Chao?
The series of twists left Yu Ci’s head spinning. He had the Fish Dragon tail the carriage a bit farther, but once it passed the fifty-mile mark, he still hadn’t gleaned any new information.
Back in the stone chamber at the dock, Yu Ci closed his eyes and pondered for a while before standing up. So far, things hadn’t involved him too deeply, so he wasn’t anxious—but he still had to do sothing.
With his plan settled, he left the room and went to the central formation to find Yan Hao.
At the Sky Rift Valley dock, the highest status belonged to the Elders—but they only cared about their research and rarely took part in practical affairs. The one with the highest cultivation was Zhou Hu, but he mainly protected the Elders. Zhao Xiqiao didn’t count—he was an outsider. When it ca to actual operations at the dock, Yan Hao, who had managed the cloud shuttles earlier, was the one in charge.
Yan Hao was an honest man, not talkative, but ticulous. He kept the dock’s affairs in perfect order. Although Yu Ci was from the Rifting Earth Sect and technically ca to help, giving him a superior position, he still made a habit of informing Yan Hao when heading out for anything serious like patrol duty.
Just like now—he found Yan Hao in the formation hub and said seriously, “There seems to be demonic beast activity outside. I’m going to check it out—I’ll be back soon.”
Yan Hao was short and honest-looking. Upon hearing this, he scratched his head, a troubled expression on his face. “Brother Yu, you already went out once this morning…”
“This isn’t a hunt.”
Yu Ci shook his head, seeing that Yan Hao had misunderstood. He explained that both he and Bi Chao had heard a strange sound earlier—though he skipped over everything that ca after.
When Yan Hao heard that even a master from the Mysterious Moon Sect had called it demonic beast activity, his face turned grave. “Scattered demonic beasts are fine, but if it’s a coordinated group and they crash into the mooring formation, that’ll be trouble.”
During the previous chaos at the Sky Rift Valley, this dock—just two thousand miles from the valley—had already been affected. Though the personnel had escaped unhard, the formation used to dock and receive cloud shuttles was damaged in the battles and took quite a bit of effort to repair.
“Exactly why I need to check it out.”
Yu Ci was rely giving notice. Though he bore responsibility at the dock, he had full autonomy. Even the Elders could only rely on seniority—they had no real authority to restrain him, and Yan Hao certainly didn’t either. Watching Yu Ci walk away, the honest man wanted to stop him but ultimately scratched his head and went to inform the Elders.
By the ti Yu Ci erged from the passage, the sky had darkened. Without delay, he oriented himself and flew into the depths of the forest. Ahead, the tiny Fish Dragon darted through the undergrowth like a scout, relaying everything it saw along the way.
After traveling about thirty miles, Yu Ci reached the original site of the disturbance. He had already seen it through the Fish Dragon earlier, but standing here in person, the details were clearer. This wasn’t just so random beast brawl.
Scattered limbs reeked of blood, yet no other animals ca to enjoy the free al. That was because lingering auras remained here—including those of several extrely dangerous fierce beasts and even a faint, acrid stench of demonic energy.
These mixed scents wouldn’t be recognizable to most, but Yu Ci’s sense of sll was abnormally sharp. He’d lived in the Sky Rift Valley for a long ti and had survived the valley’s upheaval, giving him firsthand experience with both fierce beasts and demons.
Of course, with so much ti passed, identifying each individual beast or demon from these lingering slls was impossible. What Yu Ci could do, though, was trace the shifting of the scents to deduce which direction the beasts and demons had gone. Fortunately, the violent group from earlier hadn’t bothered to hide their tracks—traces of battle and movent were plainly visible.
It didn’t take Yu Ci long to sketch out several general paths. One of them matched the route Bi Chao had chosen. If he wanted to be lazy, he could’ve just followed that. But now, as soone responsible for patrols—though no one from He Qing or Yu Zhou to the Elders actually seed to take that responsibility seriously—he had to be thorough.
Instead of moving, he had the Fish Dragon—which was as fast as a Void Stepping cultivator—dash along each of the potential paths to scout them out. Combining the scents with the physical traces left in the forest, Yu Ci deduced the movents of a few strong beasts and demons.
Fierce beasts had fled south. Demons had gone north. And to the west…
Why had such a dangerous group suddenly gathered here and fought each other?
In the end, he still chose the sa western path Bi Chao had taken. The Fish Dragon once again flew ahead as a scout. Although its sensing range was only three ters, its incredible speed made up for that limitation. Yu Ci had near-complete awareness of everything on the path ahead.
About twenty miles farther, they passed the point where the Fish Dragon had originally turned back. Yu Ci suddenly slowed, red light flickering in his palm—the Pure Yang Talisman Sword had already appeared in his hand.
A mont later, in the pitch-black forest, a cold wind rose.
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