Lowering the jade pendant, Li Guanqi frowned slightly.
Ye Feng glanced up at him and asked via voice transmission, "What is it, Boss? Did something happen?"
Li Guanqi kept his eyes closed as he traversed the void at high speed.
Instead of answering Ye Feng, dense points of light manifested around him.
As these motes rapidly shifted positions, Li Guanqi's brow knitted deeper and deeper.
Not daring to disturb him, Ye Feng waited in silence for a long while.
When Li Guanqi finally opened his eyes, the tight furrow between his brows radiated an anxiety that even Ye Feng could feel.
"Daochan Domain again..." Li Guanqi murmured softly.
Ye Feng had no idea what he meant. "Again? What about it?"
Li Guanqi shook his head, rubbing the space between his brows as he muttered, "I didn't think much of it before."
"Yet now, looking back on everything that has happened—from the moment I stepped into the Void Refining Realm up until now..."
"It seems so many things are tied to this Daochan Domain!"
Ye Feng's heart gave a jolt. He knew Li Guanqi never spoke without reason.
Walking slowly with his eyes closed, Li Guanqi let his spiritual light coalesce into the shape of Tianji Pavilion.
"The Tianji Pavilion's mission... Gu Yong's request... the Tianji Chart!"
"That was when I first came into contact with Tianji Pavilion, and it was also because of Tianji Pavilion that I traveled to the remote Daochan Domain for the very first time."
"From that point on, it's as if I've been tangled in countless threads leading back to Daochan Domain!"
Li Guanqi continued tracing through his memories.
"The Golden Snake Sect, the captured Tu Shan, the appearance of Sun Zhen and Sun Tianqi from the Sun clan..."
"In the end, it all seemed to point toward Daochan Domain."
Suddenly!
Li Guanqi pulled out a jade slip and asked in a grave tone, "Uncle Long, could you ask for me where Youming was back when Chan Kongzi inquired about him?"
Before long, Long Hou replied, "Chan Kongzi said Youming happened to be sealing an Abyss Demon rift out in the maritime region of Daochan Domain at the time."
Li Guanqi ground to a sudden halt, his grip tightening on the jade slip.
"Daochan Domain... again!!"
"Even the Sha organization's Heavenly Demon Hall was ultimately situated at Xiantu Cliff in Daochan Domain."
Hearing this, Ye Feng's brow furrowed tightly as well. "Could it just be a coincidence?"
Eyes shut tight, Li Guanqi replied grimly, "One or two things might be a coincidence."
"But when this many events link together, if someone still calls it a coincidence... then it is absolutely impossible to be one!!"
With that, Li Guanqi wheeled around and shot back toward the Great Xia Sword Sect at terrifying speed!
"Boss? What's wrong? What happened?"
Li Guanqi tore through the air, his expression dark. "We're going back to check on Tu Shan!"
"If there's something wrong with her, that means someone has been scheming against me from very early on!!"
Ye Feng's face changed. No matter how much he racked his brain, he couldn't fathom why Tu Shan would be involved.
Li Guanqi explained at a blistering pace, "When I met Tu Shan, I was already in the Void Refining Realm."
"Back then, she was only in the Soul Formation Realm, and the Golden Snake Sect's torture had even caused her cultivation to drop."
"If someone truly set a trap targeting me, with my cultivation and strength back then, I wouldn't have noticed any abnormalities with Elder Tu Shan at all."
"Ugh... in any case, let's just get back first!"
The two had not been gone long. In less than the time it took an incense stick to burn, they slipped quietly back into the Great Xia Sword Sect.
Only Cao Yan and a few others noticed their return, but by tacit understanding, everyone held their tongues.
Since the two had returned in secret, they clearly did not want anyone else to know.
Ye Feng frowned as he watched Li Guanqi make a beeline for the inner sect.
Wasting no time, Li Guanqi captured a disciple, sealed his soul, and immediately headed for Tianshui Peak.
Inside a secluded cultivation chamber, a woman who had already reached the early Void Refining Realm breathed steadily, deep in cultivation.
Looking at the woman before them, Ye Feng frowned and transmitted his voice, "Are we really checking her?"
Li Guanqi took a deep breath and nodded.
Then, an overwhelming force silently sealed the woman in an instant!
Immediately after, the entire chamber transformed into a purgatory of crackling lightning!
An uncanny power partitioned heaven and earth, completely isolating the space within the chamber into an independent domain.
Once that was done, Li Guanqi tossed the captured disciple out.
His boundless divine sense thoroughly combed through the youth's memories.
This disciple was named Yan Chong, formerly a disciple of the sect's Tianmu Peak.
While traveling abroad for several years, he had been hunted down by the Golden Snake Sect, only to be saved when Li Guanqi happened to cross his path.
It was also from his mouth that Li Guanqi had learned of Tu Shan's imprisonment.
Yet after Li Guanqi's meticulous search, he found that Yan Chong's memories were completely intact.
The entire sequence of events leading up to the pursuit was crystal clear, showing no trace of missing memory or tampering.
Withdrawing his divine sense, Li Guanqi let out a heavy breath and stared with a furrowed brow at the unconscious Tu Shan.
"Could I really be overthinking this?"
Yet he dismissed the thought almost immediately.
He still sensed something amiss about the whole affair!
How could everything line up so neatly?
Had Lu Kangnian not gone missing, he never would have suspected anything here.
Yet Lu Kangnian's disappearance inevitably raised doubts—not to mention that he had vanished within Daochan Domain!
Gazing at the unconscious woman, Li Guanqi knew that all the answers likely lay with her.
With a flick of his hand, spatial power lifted Tu Shan into midair.
Ye Feng frowned and hesitated. "Boss... isn't inspecting the sect master's Dao companion like this a bit improper...?"
It was indeed awkward, but Li Guanqi refused to back down.
"No, I must check!"
As he spoke, boundless lightning wrapped around the woman, preventing any trace of her aura from leaking out.
Boom!
A surging wave of divine sense burst forth, rapidly enveloping the woman.
Gradually, Li Guanqi's expression turned grim.
Suddenly!
Li Guanqi snapped his eyes open and barked, "Lend me your flame!"
Ye Feng instantly released the Yinming Profound Flame for Li Guanqi to command.
The terrifying power of the flame bored through the woman's seven orifices and seeped deep into her body.
In an instant, an aura surfaced that filled Li Guanqi with utter shock and fury!
It was... the exact same aura found within Cang Lu!
Using the power of lightning, Li Guanqi carefully wrapped around this hazy mist of an aura and returned it inside Tu Shan's body.
Seeing this, Ye Feng was struck dumb with horror.
The aura inside Cang Lu was etched deeply into his memory as well. Who would have thought it truly lingered within Tu Shan!
Face pale, Li Guanqi lowered Tu Shan to the ground.
His entire body trembled, his hands and feet going numb...
An eerie sense of dread enveloped him, wrapping around him like a massive cocoon that squeezed ever tighter, suffocating him.
Only after a long while did Li Guanqi regain his composure, murmuring under his breath, "The same aura... as Cang Lu."
Countless thoughts raced through Li Guanqi's mind.
He had once suspected that the figure behind Lu Tian and Cang Lu was the very same person.
Before Youming died, a flash of disappointed resignation had flickered in his eyes. At the time, Li Guanqi assumed someone from the Immortal Realm had ignored him, leaving him to die without a response.
Now, it seemed...
Whether it was Cang Lu or Youming, the person pulling their strings from behind the curtain... was very likely right here in the Human Spirit Realm!
Not only in the Human Spirit Realm, but quite possibly right in Daochan Domain!
"Why would they target Tu Shan?"
Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes to slits and murmured, "Because my master is dead... and all of you by my side are under the Eight Generals."
"The only person whose harm could make me pay a price was the sect master, who has always cared for and protected me!"
"And the sect master's weakness... aside from the survival of the sect, is likely..."
Both of them turned their gazes toward the unconscious Tu Shan.
Just listening to Li Guanqi's deductions made Ye Feng's scalp tingle.
Such calculated methods and long-term foresight far exceeded any depth of scheming he could comprehend.
Li Guanqi took a deep breath and slowly clenched his fists.
Coiling the Yinming Profound Flame around his fingertips, he tapped continuously across the woman's back, tracing a very discreet sealing formation.
Eyes narrowed, Li Guanqi whispered in a chilling voice, "Fortunately, I caught it early..."
"Now, as long as we find the sect master, we'll have severed their leverage over us!!"
Chapter 1156