Hu Shouqing and Hu Mingtao exchanged a look.
"Let my son explain!"
Facing the crowd, Hu Mingtao seemed somewhat nervous, though his gaze sharpened as he scanned the room.
Understanding immediately, Li Guanqi raised a hand and cast a formidable lightning barrier around the room, then signaled with his eyes that it was safe to speak.
Hu Mingtao drew a deep breath before speaking in a low voice.
"Recently... the Ice Lion Sect received a secret piece of information."
"Word is that a spatial rift appeared in a valley in Nanjiang's northern region."
"Rumor has it... someone caught sight of a gu bug when the rift flickered!"
Li Guanqi frowned deeply, realizing this news might be tied to the Luo Clan!
Ye Xuan held his breath as well, quietly listening as the man continued.
"The cultivator who leaked the news didn't know what kind of gu it was at first, so he used spiritual light to project its likeness."
"Someone recognized it... and said it was very likely the legendary sacred gu, the Soul-Devouring Nether Butterfly!!"
Dead silence fell over the quiet room.
The fact that Hu Mingtao had brought this up proved that this so-called Soul-Devouring Nether Butterfly was capable of accomplishing what had just been discussed!
Hu Mingtao glanced around at everyone, then continued:
"The day after the rumor got out, that cultivator was killed."
"Still, the news leaked anyway. Yet the northern region has been perfectly calm lately—no unusual occurrences have turned up, nor have any powerful fluctuations been detected."
"So... we even suspected the information might be false..."
The man fell silent after speaking.
Ye Xuan's face turned exceedingly grim, his mind thrown into turmoil.
Li Guanqi remained silent for a long time. Taking a deep breath, he looked at Hu Mingtao and asked, "How long ago did this news spread?"
Hu Mingtao hurriedly searched through the jade slips in his storage ring.
Finally, he pulled out a very ordinary jade slip and said gravely, "Four days!"
Li Guanqi closed his eyes slightly. In his mind, all the clues connected into a single thread, fitting together.
Everything had a traceable path...
"A traceable path... fully understandable..."
Li Guanqi's heart twitched faintly. He couldn't shake the feeling that this whole affair was not so simple.
It was too smooth...
Yet if this really was just the Luo Clan scheming to keep Luo Siyang alive, such underhanded methods were certainly understandable.
Li Guanqi shook his head and sighed.
*Could it be that after clashing with someone like Xun Tian for so long, I overcomplicate everyone?*
Opening his eyes slowly, Li Guanqi looked up at Hu Mingtao and asked in a low voice, "Is there any way to track down the location of that Soul-Devouring Nether Butterfly?"
Hu Mingtao pondered for a moment and replied uncertainly, "I can mobilize all our connections to look into it, but there's no guarantee we'll find anything."
Li Guanqi nodded and said firmly, "Look into it first. Regardless of whether it turns up anything, search!"
"Ye Bingxin's life-token jade slip hasn't changed much, which suggests they likely haven't found the Soul-Devouring Nether Butterfly yet."
Hearing this, the others nodded in agreement, and Ye Xuan's anxious heart settled slightly.
After Hu Mingtao departed, the atmosphere in the room grew heavy.
Li Guanqi stood up and said, "I'm stepping out for a moment."
With that, he vanished from the quiet room and arrived at a secluded spot, pulling out a jade pendant.
"How is our intelligence infiltration into the Misty Immortal Domain progressing?"
Ji Yuchuan's voice came through the jade pendant:
"Very minimal. The Misty Immortal Domain is extremely hostile toward outsider cultivators, making infiltration very difficult."
Li Guanqi gave a slight nod; he had sensed as much himself.
"Never mind that for now. Disguise some operatives as local Nanjiang cultivators."
"Have them go to the northern region of Nanjiang and investigate something for me."
"Rumors surfaced recently that a secret realm in Nanjiang's northern region harbors a Soul-Devouring Nether Butterfly. Help me find where this secret realm is located!"
Detecting the gravity in Li Guanqi's voice, Ji Yuchuan composed his thoughts and answered solemnly, "Understood. Leave it to me."
Stowing the jade pendant, Li Guanqi leaned back against a large tree, his eyes narrowing.
A sharp gleam flickered in his gaze as he took out a jade slip to contact Tang Ru.
He relayed everything he currently knew to Tang Ru.
Silence stretched from the other end of the jade slip. At last, Li Guanqi's jade slip lit up twice.
Yet the two brief sentences Tang Ru sent caused Li Guanqi to suck in a sharp breath!!
Li Guanqi's heart pounded violently, as if threatening to burst from his chest.
His hands and feet turned icy cold, and a chill engulfed him like falling into an ice cellar!
His throat bobbed as he swallowed hard. A wave of dread rushed up his spine straight to his skull, making the hairs on his arms stand on end.
At this moment, he gained a whole new appreciation for Tang Ru's intellect.
It was as though...
Ever since Li Guanqi left, spending time around Yu Shan had enlightened Tang Ru.
His perspective on events and problems was entirely different from before.
With just two sentences, Tang Ru had induced an eerie, hair-raising dread in him.
Li Guanqi kept his divine sense spread across a hundred-zhang radius. After confirming there was no one else nearby, he forced his mind to steady!
Even so, it took him two full breaths to calm his turbulent emotions.
Throughout his cultivation journey, he had survived countless life-and-death perils.
Yet now, two analytical sentences from Tang Ru had unnerved him into such an uncharacteristic loss of composure!!
Not only Li Guanqi—Tang Ru, having reached that conclusion in the Fourth Domain, was likewise drenched in cold sweat.
Tang Ru abruptly stood up, turned to Yu Shan, bowed deeply, and said in a grave tone, "Senior Yu Shan, I have urgent business and must head down for a bit."
Looking at the unfinished game of Go before him, Yu Shan frowned slightly, glancing up at Tang Ru's frantic expression before nodding.
"Go ahead. If there is anything you cannot resolve, you may come consult me."
Tang Ru cupped his fists in farewell, then immediately sent a voice transmission to Gu Li:
"Old Six, where are you? I'm coming to find you right away!"
"Huh? You're coming to find me? Fantastic!! Fifth Brother!! You're my real brother, hurry up and save me..."
"I'm hauling rocks in the Celestial Spirit Mountain Range..."
The corner of Tang Ru's mouth twitched. Putting away the jade slip, he rushed straight for the Celestial Spirit Mountain Range.
Back at the Ice Lion Sect, Hu Mingtao had tapped virtually every connection available to the sect, including personal ones.
Yet... well into the night, there was still no trace of the Soul-Devouring Nether Butterfly's whereabouts.
It seemed almost as though the rumor had been false all along. But deep into the night—
Li Guanqi suddenly surged to his feet!!
Everyone's eyes snapped to him. Li Guanqi took out the jade pendant, from which Ji Yuchuan's exhausted voice emerged:
"Nanjiang's northern region, Dijing Slope!"
Li Guanqi had no idea what price Guanyun Pavilion had paid to obtain this information, or how many sleeper agents had been compromised...
He said softly into the jade pendant, "Thank you for your hard work."
Ji Yuchuan gave a bitter laugh. "Dijing Slope is only a general area. As for the exact coordinates, we couldn't uncover them."
Li Guanqi understood what Ji Yuchuan meant. That area had to be extraordinarily sensitive; Guanyun Pavilion's operatives couldn't penetrate deeper, and some had likely already been killed!
In other words...
Dijing Slope in the northern region was very likely the entrance to that secret realm!
Li Guanqi had never considered marching straight into the Luo Clan. They weren't fools, and they certainly wouldn't have left a shred of evidence behind.
A direct confrontation would be pointless.
Li Guanqi took a deep breath, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone as he said gravely, "This time... only Senior Ye and I will go."
"Too many people will only increase the risk of exposure. Besides, the enemy's situation remains unclear, so it is better to be cautious."
Seeing that Li Guanqi had already made his decision, the others didn't press further. Li Guanqi knew what he was doing, and there was no need for unnecessary fuss.
Han Yuan and the others handed over several bottles of medicinal pills, saying solemnly, "Be careful. If anything happens, send word immediately."
Accepting the pills, Li Guanqi nodded slightly. He exchanged a glance with Ye Xuan, and together they tore open the void and vanished into the rift.
The two figures sped like lightning through the void.
Their destination: Dijing Slope!
Chapter 1400