The instant he plunged into the yin wind barrier, the protective shield of the Heavenly Star Tear completely enveloped Qin Sang. His body suddenly felt weightless, and a violent gale shoved him aside with tremendous force. Before he could recover, several more gusts converged upon him from all directions.
Qin Sang felt like a slab of meat on a chopping block, battered from head to toe by blow after heavy blow. The shield of the Heavenly Star Tear was warped out of shape under the relentless tearing.
*Bang!*
He slammed hard against a cliff face. Before the pain could even register, a tremendous pull yanked him away and hurled him toward the opposite cliff. Stumbling and tumbling, he was tossed about at the mercy of the tempest.
At the same time, an ear-splitting demonic drone poured ceaselessly into his mind, its eerie vibrations assailing his origin soul. Shielded by the jade Buddha, Qin Sang was able to withstand the noise completely. But anyone lacking ironclad willpower or effective defenses would likely suffer severe damage to their origin soul from the sound alone.
Furthermore, the howling gale carried a bone-chilling yin cold, cutting at intruders like countless blades of ice. If someone were dazed by the demonic sound and lost the strength to sustain their defensive magic tools, they might easily perish in the storm.
His vision tilted and spun. Qingting and the others had vanished entirely. As expected, the moment they entered the yin wind barrier, the winds had scattered them. He wondered whether the Liu brothers could withstand it.
Channeling the Heavenly Star Tear with all his might, Qin Sang condensed the barrier until it clung tightly to his body. Only then was he barely able to steady himself within the tempest and attempt to probe downward.
This layer of yin wind was exceptionally thick. Within it, apart from the raging gales and the mind-assailing demonic drone, there were no other dangers. Because the winds were chaotic and unpredictable, Qin Sang could only drift with the flow for a while until he worked out their pattern. Once he understood the rhythm, he seized every opening to dive rapidly downward.
Riding the rises and falls, he descended an unknown depth before finally bursting through the bounds of the yin wind barrier.
"Junior Brother Qin has made it down as well!"
Just as he broke free of the gale, Qin Sang heard Yu Daiyue's delighted voice. Looking closely, he saw that three people had already arrived safely. Qingting and Yu Daiyue were no surprise; having been here once before, they were already experienced. What startled Qin Sang was that the third person was Baiyun Shanren.
The old man nodded at him with calm composure, looking as though he had arrived quite some time ago.
It seemed his unassuming cloth pouch was far from ordinary.
Thoughts flashing through his mind, Qin Sang greeted the three without letting anything show on his face, then darted to their side. Setting foot on the solid stone ground, he looked around, taking in his surroundings.
He had expected a bottomless abyss beneath the yin wind barrier, but passing through brought them straight to the bottom—or rather, to the canyon's second tier.
This place was even more desolate than the exterior. Overhead, the yin wind barrier blotted out the sky. Cliff walls should have flanked both sides, but they were hidden from view. Not only the left and right, but even the canyon's front and rear ends were smothered beneath the thick barrier of yin wind.
The barrier sat over them like an inverted bowl, leaving only a circular patch of ground for them to stand on.
Even so, one could tell from the outside that the canyon grew broader the deeper it went.
This space was truly vast. The canyon seemed to have hollowed out the flanks of the mountains on both sides. Whether it had formed naturally or was carved out by human hand was impossible to tell.
Not a trace of life met the eye. The stone on the ground was not dark blue-black, but an absolute, pitch black. Qin Sang reached down to touch a protruding black rock and found it bitterly frigid. Even a cultivator could barely endure such cold. Withdrawing his hand, he was secretly astonished.
They stood at the edge of the circular clearing. At its center lay a massive pool of water, its emerald surface rippling with clear waves. Because there was not a breath of wind in this space, it was profoundly still, and the pool was remarkably calm, appearing clear enough that one might see the bottom at a glance.
Yet when Qin Sang walked to the water's edge and looked down, he saw only bottomless depths—and certainly no fish.
"No wonder you passed the trial of the Red Dust Gourd, Junior Brother Qin. Seeing you emerge from the barrier with your complexion unchanged, moving freely and without the slightest harm to your origin soul... that is not something sheer willpower alone can achieve. Your spiritual sense must be quite formidable as well," Qingting said, her eyes shining with marvel. After all, she had needed to consume a spirit pill just to shake off the effects of the demonic sound.
Yu Daiyue gave Qin Sang a deep, meaningful look and chuckled. "Senior Sister Qingting forgets that when Junior Brother Qin cleared the Treasure Gourd Illusory Realm, he was only at the eleventh layer of the Qi Refinement stage. Now that he has broken through to Foundation Establishment, his spiritual sense has naturally grown even stronger."
Hearing this, Baiyun Shanren glanced at Qin Sang with surprise, the casual look on his face vanishing entirely.
Qin Sang took in the subtle shifts in their expressions and replied calmly, "Senior Sister Qingting flatters me. I was merely fortunate enough to have consumed a Blue Nether Fruit in the past, which enhanced my spiritual sense a little."
The reason he had not pretended to be afflicted by the demonic drone was, first, that bursting through the barrier had happened without warning, leaving no time to fake an injury.
Second, while keeping a low profile had its virtues, one also needed harmless opportunities to show some spine.
If the exploration went smoothly and the time came to divide the spoils, things might not proceed strictly according to agreement. In particular, should a rare treasure appear, greed stirred the heart, and there was no telling what might happen. Qin Sang placed no faith in the so-called bonds between sect mates.
Among the group, Qin Sang and the Liu brothers possessed the weakest strength. The others might not know his foundation was damaged, but it could not be hidden from Yu Daiyue, making Qin Sang an easy target to be bullied like a soft persimmon.
Letting them know he was not someone to be trifled with would spare him a great deal of unnecessary trouble.
So long as the jade Buddha remained hidden, they would only assume his spiritual sense was slightly stronger than average; none would guess that he was entirely immune to all soul-targeting attacks.
Besides, tempered constantly by sword qi and the killing talisman during his cultivation, Qin Sang's spiritual sense truly was somewhat stronger than that of ordinary cultivators of the same realm.
He had considered searching for a cultivation method dedicated to spiritual sense.
However, methods that trained spiritual sense were rare. The few kept at Pagoda Peak were mediocre, and his innate talent was poor enough that he dared not divide his attention for the time being, lest his hopes of Core Formation become even more remote.
Realization dawned on Qingting, and she said with envy, "Blue Nether Fruits possess miraculous effects for strengthening spiritual sense, but they are rarely seen in the cultivation world nowadays. You have fine luck, Junior Brother Qin."
Qin Sang nodded. Turning his gaze forward, he pointed toward the pool and asked, "Senior Sister Qingting, is the formation restriction inside the pool?"
To his surprise, Qingting shook her head. "It is not inside the pool. The entire pool *is* the formation restriction. You will see if you test it with your spiritual sense, Junior Brother Qin."
Puzzled, Qin Sang looked at the water and sent a strand of spiritual sense toward the surface. The tranquil pool gently rippled, appearing utterly harmless, yet his spiritual sense was firmly barred outside the ripples. No matter how much force he applied, he could not penetrate it in the slightest.
Just then, the whistle of a sword resonated from above. Qin Sang looked up to see Li Zai arriving atop his flying sword, sharp sword qi tearing through the yin wind barrier.
After waiting a while longer, Wu Yuesheng and the Liu brothers arrived one after another, allowing everyone to breathe a long sigh of relief.
Chapter 154