Teleportation

The commotion behind grew louder and louder as the battle grew exceptionally fierce. It seemed Ning Wuhui truly possessed the strength to contend with the night owl. Moreover, the night owl had already been wounded. Qin Sang was no longer so worried. At this moment, he noticed a quiet shift taking place within the stone forest. The woods grew increasingly eerie and dreadful, and the wailing, bizarre shrieks carried on the yin wind only deepened the chilling atmosphere. A rustling sound drifted from afar, not at all resembling the wind. *The ferocious beasts have been disturbed...* Qin Sang's gaze hardened. Not daring to linger, he darted swiftly through the stone forest, speeding toward the Secluded Valley. Even so, Qin Sang still ran into two packs of ferocious beasts. Fortunately, neither consisted of top-tier beasts. He quickly slew them with his sword wheel, and after several twists and turns, he finally made his escape from the stone forest. *I wonder how Ning Wuhui is doing.* Qin Sang arrived at their agreed meeting place, but Ning Wuhui was nowhere to be seen. Thanks to his Heavenly Eye divine ability, which allowed him to spot enemy traces well in advance every time, Qin Sang had sustained no injuries. He had merely depleted some true essence, which could be restored with a brief session of breath regulation. With nothing else he could do, he waited patiently. Opposite the stone forest lay a boundless expanse of gobi desert, equally barren of any vegetation and desolate to the extreme. He leapt onto the canopy of a stone tree and peered as far as his eyes could see. Faintly visible to the left was the undulating silhouette of a mountain range, deep within which thousands of rays of multicolored light radiated. Between those rays of light were distinct, densely crisscrossing spatial rifts. The void there appeared shredded to pieces—a truly horrifying sight. Compared to those spatial rifts, even the eerie luminescence flashing from ancient restrictions paled in comparison. No wonder human cultivators had never uncovered the true secrets of the Hall of Seven Kills to this day. In a place like this, even a Nascent Soul cultivator would find it difficult to take a single step, and the interior was bound to be even more perilous. Fortunately, the space deep within the gobi appeared far more stable, with relatively sparse spatial rifts. Just as Qin Sang was looking around and surveying the terrain, he suddenly felt a wave of fluctuations rapidly approaching. Focusing his gaze, he saw Ning Wuhui, and a look of delight crossed his face. "Fellow Daoist Ning, you're not hurt, are you?" Qin Sang dropped down to the ground and examined Ning Wuhui, noting that the man had merely overextended his true essence, showing no visible outward injuries. "I'm fine. That night owl was already wounded and its strength impaired, and the terrain of the stone forest suited an escape..." Ning Wuhui looked relaxed as he sat down cross-legged, gripping spirit stones in his hands to recover his true essence. "Is your current strength already comparable to that of a Nascent Soul Patriarch?" Qin Sang asked, having hesitated for a moment before the question escaped his lips. Ning Wuhui shook his head. "At this point, there is no need to hide anything. This external Nascent Soul of mine is certainly inferior to a true Nascent Soul. It lacks the corresponding great divine abilities, and falling under the eye of a powerful foe would be exceedingly dangerous. What's worse, aside from the soul that merged into the Nascent Soul, I myself cannot derive any benefits from it. My golden core cannot undergo a metamorphosis; all of the power originates strictly from the external Nascent Soul itself. Because my own cultivation is insufficient, controlling the external Nascent Soul takes tremendous effort, and every time I deploy it, the Nascent Soul must leave my body..." Listening to Ning Wuhui's explanation, Qin Sang felt a flash of enlightenment and gradually understood. After all, the external Nascent Soul did not genuinely belong to him; it was more like an external power, somewhat similar in certain aspects to the corpse core Qin Sang had formed in the past. It was said that a true Nascent Soul possessed the ability to teleport—a premier life-saving divine ability. Judging from Ning Wuhui's tone, the external Nascent Soul did not possess it. Even so, simply possessing the combat strength of the Nascent Soul realm was enough to drive countless Core Formation stage cultivators mad with envy. Noticing Qin Sang's intrigue, Ning Wuhui smiled faintly and said, "This secret technique was imparted to me by the senior. Being able to cultivate it was purely a stroke of good fortune. It requires not only a mature Earth Blood Ginseng, but also other harsh conditions. Under the circumstances of the present world, it is practically impossible to replicate..." "Earth Blood Ginseng?" Qin Sang fell into thought. He was not skilled in alchemy and possessed only a superficial knowledge of spirit herbs. Searching his memory, he had never heard of an Earth Blood Ginseng. The secret technique of the external Nascent Soul had been obtained from Senior Qingzhu. Qin Sang was not surprised by this. Senior Qingzhu had entrusted Ning Wuhui with such a heavy responsibility, so the two clearly shared a deep relationship. With Senior Qingzhu's cultivation, acquiring one or two pinnacle secret techniques was hardly astonishing. Evidently, Senior Qingzhu's plans were grand, requiring Ning Wuhui to possess sufficient cultivation. Reaching the Nascent Soul realm could not be accomplished overnight. An external Nascent Soul, however, allowed Ning Wuhui's strength to soar in an instant. "Earth Blood Ginseng has long been extinct in the outside world. Only after uncovering clues within the Tiandao Sect was I able to confirm that one existed in the Trial Realm. This spirit herb is shaped like an infant. Once matured, it can move about freely, possessing escape arts superior even to those of Nascent Soul cultivators. It appears and vanishes like a phantom, and it is protected by formidable defensive spirit qi. Even within the Trial Realm, I prepared thoroughly and exhausted every method just to barely capture it, nearly being gravely injured in the process." Ning Wuhui sighed with emotion. "Refining it into an external Nascent Soul was no easy feat either. This secret technique was originally intended for Nascent Soul Patriarchs; I could never have accomplished it on my own. It required the aid of a spirit formation, supplemented by all kinds of rare treasures..." *It's good to rest beneath a large tree's shade!* Qin Sang could not help but feel envious. Those harsh conditions had surely been arranged for Ning Wuhui in advance by Senior Qingzhu. Qin Sang was the one who lacked a trustworthy guide, forced to blaze his own path through trial and error. "I cannot share the secret technique without permission, so please forgive me, Fellow Daoist," Ning Wuhui said. Qin Sang nodded in understanding. If he truly wanted it, he could only wait until he met Senior Qingzhu and find a way to trade for it. However, after hearing Ning Wuhui's description, Qin Sang's interest in the secret technique waned considerably. The requirements were so stringent that cultivating it at the Core Formation stage was simply impossible. Even if one successfully broke through to the Nascent Soul realm, putting so much effort into all those preparations would still leave capturing an Earth Blood Ginseng an elusive feat. By comparison, it would be far better to put all his efforts into helping Bai advance to a Corpse King. That, too, was an aid at the Nascent Soul level, yet with far greater hope of success. At least until the Heavenly Corpse Talisman was undone, Bai would remain by his side. Ning Wuhui sat cross-legged with his eyes closed while Qin Sang stood guard nearby. Once his true essence was ninety percent recovered, Ning Wuhui stood up, looked toward the depths of the gobi, and said, "I did not expect to encounter so many setbacks. We need to pick up the pace." The two set out once again. The terrain of the gobi rose and fell, though not into cloud-piercing peaks—only low hills. Lacking any place of concealment, they could only proceed with extra caution. The further forward they traveled, the more they sensed a creeping chill. Before long, they noticed a faint gray mist floating in the void ahead. The mist was not thick and barely obstructed their vision, while the terrain remained a vast gobi desert, little different from the land behind them. The two halted and gazed ahead. The gray mist rolled on continuously, forming a sea of fog with no end in sight. To all appearances, its expanse was far broader than that of the Purple Mist Deathland. "The Secluded Valley lies ahead," Ning Wuhui said in a solemn voice. "I didn't expect it to be so massive!" Qin Sang exclaimed in wonder. How could this place be considered a valley? "The 'valley' of the Secluded Valley is not named in relation to mountains, but in relation to the entire void." Ning Wuhui raised his hand and pointed toward the horizon to their left. "Look over there. It can practically be regarded as a dead end. On the opposite side of the Secluded Valley lies a similar sight, like two precipitous cliffs boxing the Secluded Valley in the middle."