Furthermore...
Li Guanqi turned around and took a deep, measuring look at Ye Xuan.
From start to finish, Ye Xuan's expression had hardly shown any unusual shifts, and even the fluctuations in his emotions had been entirely natural. Moreover, every word he spoke and action he took had a clear rationale behind it.
With such a catastrophic crisis at hand, it was only natural for Ye Xuan to want to break through to the Tribulation Transcendence realm as quickly as possible to confront the Luo Clan, which possessed Tribulation Transcendence cultivators.
Everything was completely reasonable.
Yet Li Guanqi had remained vigilant throughout.
Thus, when Ye Xuan asked for his help in breaking through to the Tribulation Transcendence realm right at this juncture, he could not shake the feeling that something was amiss.
So he had decisively refused. And upon hearing Li Guanqi's refusal, Ye Xuan had shown no signs of resentment or abnormality.
"Could it be... that I am jumping at shadows, being overly suspicious?"
"No!!"
The moment doubt in his own instincts arose, Li Guanqi immediately chose to stand firm!
He would rather be overly suspicious than abandon his vigilance.
Tang Ru had taught him that.
Sometimes... an enemy would intentionally show you exactly what they wanted you to see.
Therefore, Li Guanqi showed not the slightest trace of suspicion. Looking solemn, he turned to Ye Xuan and said in a heavy voice, "Let us head to Nanjiang first. We will discuss our strategy once we reach the Ice Lion Sect!"
Ye Xuan nodded with a grim expression, then tore through the void to journey together with Li Guanqi toward Nanjiang!
Along the way, Li Guanqi kept a close eye on Ye Xuan.
He was afraid.
He feared that the current Ye Xuan might be like Li Shenzhi and Lu Wuhen in the past—unaware that he had already fallen under another's control.
Yet Li Guanqi sensed none of that bizarre discordance or distinctive aura from Ye Xuan.
This allowed Li Guanqi to breathe a slight sigh of relief. As they traveled, he spoke with Ye Xuan, hypothesizing what the enemy's next move might be.
If all of this was merely the Luo Clan seeking a surrogate to plunder of constitution and origin spirit for Luo Siyang before the Life-Soul Golden Cicada Gu in his body died, then everything made sense.
Their goal from the start had been Ye Bingxin herself, with no other designs on the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect. As for whether he had been factored into their schemes, it was still too early to draw conclusions.
Throughout the journey, Ye Xuan remained subdued and quiet, barely speaking. From time to time, he took out Ye Bingxin's life-bound jade slip to check on it. As of yet, no cracks had appeared on her jade slip; its light had merely dimmed slightly. It seemed Ye Bingxin's life was not in immediate danger, which brought Ye Xuan some measure of relief.
The two traveled swiftly, but eventually Li Guanqi felt Ye Xuan's pace was still too slow, so he unfurled his thunder wings and carried Ye Xuan along in a full-speed dash.
Before long, they secretly arrived at the Ice Lion Sect in Nanjiang.
Inside a quiet chamber atop a mysterious high tower, Hu Shouqing, Han Yuan, and the others were gathered. A ripple of spatial fluctuations stirred the air as a spatial rift tore open, and Li Guanqi and Ye Xuan stepped out side by side.
Han Yuan and the others nodded in greeting when they saw Ye Xuan. Ye Xuan's eyes flickered as he looked at Hu Shouqing; he had assumed the old man had passed away long ago. Standing beside him was a man who bore a resemblance to the old elder—his son, Hu Mingtao.
Ye Xuan had not anticipated that the old man would radiate such surging aura, clearly having taken another step forward. Even Han Yuan, Jiang Qizhi, and the others possessed extraordinarily powerful auras, clearly having just broken through to the half-step Tribulation Transcendence realm not long ago.
It seemed Li Guanqi had not lied: he truly had helped them achieve breakthroughs, and asking to borrow Li Guanqi's power for himself had indeed been asking too much.
"Senior Hu, I am Ye Xuan, the Sect Master of the Nine Dragons Immortal Sect."
Hearing this, the old man burst into a hearty laugh. "I have long heard of Sect Master Ye's great renown and how your sword dao borders on the divine. Seeing you today, you truly live up to the rumors."
Ye Xuan waved a hand, saying rather helplessly, "You flatter me. Most of that is just wild hearsay from the outside world. My daughter has met with misfortune, so I must ask for your forbearance in troubling your sect."
Hu Shouqing waved his broad hand dismissively. "No need to be so polite. We're all on the same side here—no one wanted something like this to happen. Just treat the Ice Lion Sect as your own home. Make yourself comfortable."
Ye Xuan nodded with a faint smile, though it was somewhat stiff.
Han Yuan and the others were already old acquaintances, so little needed to be said.
Once everyone took their seats, Li Guanqi gave a concise overview of the information they had gathered so far.
Han Yuan and the others were all alchemists, making them naturally sensitive to matters of this nature.
"Guanqi, do you really think it's feasible to plunder someone's constitution and origin spirit like that?"
Hearing this, Li Guanqi let out an uncertain sigh. "At first, I thought such a thing was impossible. Plundering them is far more difficult than forced possession. But... before coming to the Ice Lion Sect, I went to a place called Moon Shadow City. It was there that I first experienced firsthand just how different Nanjiang is. Gu bugs are everywhere in Nanjiang, and the effects of some of them struck even me as unfathomable."
At this, the gray-haired Hu Shouqing nodded in deep agreement. "Indeed. Nanjiang is rife with gu bugs, and through deliberate crossbreeding, many of them undergo unpredictable mutations. Even I wouldn't dare claim I could recognize every gu bug in Nanjiang."
Ye Xuan knew very little about Nanjiang, given the vast distance between them, and he had previously sneered at things like gu bugs.
Jiang Qizhi seemed to think of something at that moment and frowned. "Extracting another person's constitution and innate talent is practically pure fantasy. Unless the Luo Clan has the means to have Luo Siyang completely devour Ye Bingxin's soul, and then employ the might of a supreme expert to repair his dantian and regenerate his origin spirit!"
At those words, even Han Yuan and Guo Feng nodded in agreement.
To alchemists like them, such an undertaking sounded completely fantastical—sheer wishful thinking...
Guo Feng shook his head and said in a grave voice, "Indeed. Such a feat is simply impossible to achieve."
Beside them, Han Yuan, the strongest among them, also shook his head with a sigh. "Devouring another person's divine soul... is quite different from seizing their soul consciousness in possession. It is far too difficult. What's more, devouring requires refining and integrating the other party's soul, not simply tearing it apart and crushing it."
Li Guanqi nodded slightly as he listened to the three of them.
Such a process was dozens of times harder than ordinary possession.
If he were the one doing it... it might actually be possible.
Yet just as the secret room fell silent, Li Guanqi suddenly turned his head.
As soon as he did, he saw the shocked old man and his son exchange a glance.
A bad premonition seized Li Guanqi.
The two who had been born and raised in Nanjiang hadn't said a word.
"Elder Hu... could there be a gu bug capable of taking a cultivator's place to complete this process?"
Chapter 1399