Wrong! All Wrong!

Ye Feng fell silent as well. Ever since crawling out of the Purgatory Abyss and meeting at the Ning clan, he too had crossed paths with Cang Lu. Even back then, Cang Lu and Li Guanqi had already been entangled for several years. If the person behind Cang Lu had been watching Li Guanqi all along, that was understandable enough. Yet... When Ye Feng turned his gaze toward the unconscious Tu Shan, an inexplicable chill crept up his spine. Just thinking about it sent shivers through him... To be watched by an unknown expert for over a decade, perhaps even longer. Such a thing was exceedingly rare even in the cultivation world. For someone to plot against Li Guanqi with such deliberate calculation, there had to be something on him that they were determined to claim. Li Guanqi stood in place, his eyes flickering for a long time as he paced in silence. Ye Feng dared not interrupt, knowing Li Guanqi's mind had to be in complete turmoil right now. Countless threads of thought were tangled together like a ball of hemp, nearly impossible to unravel. With eyes closed, Li Guanqi slowly paced the chamber, countless thoughts surging through his vast sea of consciousness. He had even begun to suspect whether that domain holding the Tianji Chart had been a conspiracy aimed at him from the very start. If so, what role had Xuan Lin played in it? Or had Xuan Lin merely been an ordinary pawn? Perhaps Xuan Lin hadn't even amounted to a pawn. And what was more... Li Guanqi took a deep breath and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air. Back in God Burial Valley, when he invoked the Dayan Tianji Chart, he had genuinely sensed the presence of an entity from the upper realm. If the one targeting Tu Shan and this entity were one and the same, then the chess player lurking within the Daochan Domain was very likely that upper realm figure's clone! Those two were very likely the same person. Otherwise, it would make no sense that he had felt that same aura through the Dayan Tianji Chart. Seen this way... it seemed to fit. How could an immortal in the upper realm maintain constant oversight over the lower realm? There was only one possibility! The person above had left a clone in the Human Spirit Realm to oversee the whole board. Suddenly, Li Guanqi's expression darkened... He suddenly doubted whether the presence he had sensed back then truly belonged to someone from the Immortal Realm. Could it not have been the mastermind behind the Daochan Domain all along? An Immortal Realm entity... with his cultivation back then? Peering at an immortal with just the Dayan Tianji Chart? The sword spirit had once said that Grandfather's strength was that of a Human Spirit Immortal! According to Li Guanqi's own deduction, though he didn't know how Grandfather managed to possess the might of an immortal while remaining in the Human Spirit Realm, judging by the fact that Su Xuan had suppressed the Human Spirit Realm for ten thousand years and prevented any immortal from descending during that entire span, Grandfather's power was likely far from weak even among the ranks of immortals. Yet the more he considered this, the more Li Guanqi doubted whether the shadowy hand he had glimpsed back then truly came from the Immortal Realm. From what the sword spirit had gradually revealed over time... an immortal truly capable of sending agents below to seek the sword spirit would surely be an apex existence even in the Immortal Realm! Given his own strength back in God Burial Valley... even with the aid of the Dayan Tianji Chart, he felt that spying on the lowliest of immortals would have been a stretch. Then the aura he had felt back then... There was only one possibility! The Dayan Tianji Chart, Gu Yong, Tianji Pavilion—every single one of them was inextricably linked to the Daochan Domain. Which meant... his earlier suspicion that someone else stood behind Gu Yong might have been mistaken... There was another possibility! Back then, that entity had been hiding above the Human Spirit Realm, but below the Immortal Realm! That entity existed in a place akin to the Seventh Domain, which was why his perception had been led astray. Moreover, he had overlooked a crucial piece of logic: his own strength... What right had he possessed to perceive higher-tier immortals of the Immortal Realm? Li Guanqi panted heavily, cold sweat streaming down his forehead without pause. Looked at this way... Cang Lu, Gu Yong, Lu Tian, and Youming... behind all of them stood the very same person! When Youming cried for help before dying, looking up to the sky... had it truly been toward the Immortal Realm? Not necessarily. It might well have been toward that interstice between humans and immortals where the mastermind concealed himself! As for Lu Wuhen... he was certain that the figure behind Lu Wuhen was someone far more cautious. From beginning to end, that figure had only wanted to test the full extent of his strength, uncertain whether other "swords" remained inside his sword coffin! Yet... the entity behind Cang Lu had clearly probed again and again, still refusing to give up. Perhaps in that entity's mind, it was an absolute certainty that the sword spirit resided within his sword coffin! Li Guanqi's breath suddenly caught. He realized that even his act of using the Dayan Tianji Chart to spy on them... had likely fallen squarely within their calculations! Its purpose, in all likelihood, had been to verify whether he possessed the sword spirit! It connected... everything finally made sense! Where were there three hidden hands? There were only two chess players! Breathing raggedly, Li Guanqi dropped to one knee, eyes wide, both hands braced against the ground as his chest heaved violently. His heavy gasps sounded like a working bellows. Sensing the turbulent upheaval in Li Guanqi's state of mind, Ye Feng was alarmed. He had never seen Li Guanqi lose his composure like this. In his impression, Li Guanqi had always been calm and composed no matter what happened. This was the first time he had ever witnessed him so shaken. "Boss, are you alright?" Only after a protracted silence did Li Guanqi slowly rise and wave a hand. Pale-faced and dripping with sweat, Li Guanqi said in a deep voice, "I'm fine..." "I've just figured a few things out." Ye Feng didn't know what he had pieced together. Though Li Guanqi wore a grave expression, Ye Feng felt that, on the inside, he had actually grown far more at ease. And reality matched Ye Feng's supposition. Once Li Guanqi untangled these mysteries, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders. Rather than being misled and kept in the dark, now that he knew the truth, he had slipped into the shadows, while the enemy was exposed to the light! The initiative... had returned to Li Guanqi's hands for the very first time! Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes. After a long silence, he suddenly spoke: "Tu Shan cannot wake up!" "And you cannot follow me!" With that, Li Guanqi abruptly sent out a voice transmission: "Everyone, leave behind a clone bearing your aura, conceal your presence, and come find me!" The moment the message was sent, Cao Yan—who had been conversing and sharing insights with Sun Miao on Pill Peak—kept talking on the surface while quietly slipping away from the peak. Not just Cao Yan, but the others did the same. A moment later, everyone had gathered within Tu Shan's cultivation chamber. Seeing the unconscious Tu Shan with sealing power lingering across her back, Cao Yan and Xiao Chen both furrowed their brows slightly. Li Guanqi took a deep breath and explained the current situation in the simplest terms possible.