Qin Sang turned his palm over, and a crystal-clear crystal appeared in his grasp.
Urging his true essence into the crystal, it suddenly trembled as a faint milky-white radiance spread out from within, gradually projecting a lifelike scene.
Qin Sang watched intently, his eyes fixed on the crystal.
The Heaven Tower loomed tall, and a severed-arm ancient corpse plummeted from the sky.
Through the thick sea of clouds, only a hazy shadow of the ancient corpse could be discerned, enveloped in dense corpse qi so thick that even the white clouds were dyed a bizarre hue.
Just as the severed-arm ancient corpse was about to tumble out of the cloud sea, it abruptly vanished.
In the next moment, several formidable figures soared into the sky, but they were blocked beneath the cloud sea, unable to enter, and lingered in midair.
With that, the scene in the crystal came to an abrupt halt.
Why had he suddenly vanished from the Hall of Seven Kills and reappeared in the distant Witch God Continent? This enormous mystery lingered in Qin Sang's mind, refusing to disperse.
Had a peculiar restriction within the Hall of Seven Kills teleported him here?
Or had some mysterious figure in the Heaven Tower carried him out of the Hall of Seven Kills and cast him aside here?
Qin Sang puzzled over it to no avail, but he had already realized that the ancient teleportation array was most likely atop the Heaven Tower; his recent efforts in the Western Frontier had all been in vain.
If he wanted to uncover the truth and find the ancient teleportation array, he would have to venture into the Hall of Seven Kills himself.
The next time the Hall of Seven Kills opened would not be for several decades, when the protective immortal formation of the hall reached a low ebb and various factions set up formations to force their way inside.
During this period, Qin Sang's most pressing concern was to increase his strength as much as possible.
Although he had not been able to obtain all the information about the Hall of Seven Kills from Du Han, catching even a glimpse revealed that the hall was fraught with peril, danger lurking at every turn, comparable to the Outer Hall of the Ziwei Palace.
It was certainly not a tranquil paradise like the Inner Hall of the Ziwei Palace.
At the early Core Formation stage, one would only be at the very bottom among the cultivators entering the Hall of Seven Kills.
"With the cultivation speed of the Origin Soul Sword-Nurturing Chapter, as long as I practice diligently without slackening, several decades should be enough for me to break through to the mid Core Formation stage. After all, this cultivation method has no bottlenecks between minor realms... I must head to the Demon Sea as soon as possible,"
Qin Sang murmured to himself. The place most suited for his cultivation was the Storm Demon Sea, where he could comprehend the killing talisman while hunting demon beasts to exchange for spirit stones.
Right now, a deep worry weighed on Qin Sang's mind: if the Heaven Tower was truly as dangerous as the rumors claimed, would he have to wait until he reached Nascent Soul before having a chance to return to the Lesser Cold Domain?
Without a Du'e Pill, what were the odds of forming a Nascent Soul?
Qin Sang had a massive headache over this.
At the same time, he felt secretly fortunate.
It was said that the white clouds at the top of the Heaven Tower were exceedingly peculiar, harboring ancient restrictions such that even Nascent Soul Patriarchs could not extend their spiritual sense into the sea of clouds by even a sliver.
One could not use spiritual sense to probe the identity of the ancient corpse.
Relying solely on the naked eye, through the hazy sea of clouds and dense corpse qi, not only was the corpse's face invisible, but because of its curled-up posture, even its build could not be seen clearly.
Because the corpse qi was so thick, and because it had plunged from the summit of the desolate Heaven Tower, no eyewitness would ever have imagined that it was actually a living person.
Once his severed arm was restored and the corpse qi purged, no one would think that Qin Sang was that severed-arm ancient corpse.
After learning that the Hall of Seven Kills and the ancient corpse were of monumental significance and under intense scrutiny, Qin Sang had been on tenterhooks, terrified that his identity would be exposed and leave him unable to take a single step in the Canglang Sea.
Seeing the scene in the crystal with his own eyes finally set his mind at ease.
From Du Han, he learned that after the severed-arm ancient corpse vanished, some Nascent Soul Patriarchs believed it had been stolen in broad daylight, nearly causing a major upheaval at the time.
Du Han did not know what negotiations had taken place among the Nascent Soul Patriarchs, but an all-out battle had not erupted.
After the Hall of Seven Kills closed, word spread from certain human factions that they were searching for the severed-arm ancient corpse. Only then did Du Han and the others realize that those human Nascent Soul cultivators had never found the corpse.
Upon returning to the Witch God Continent, they immediately reported the anomaly in the Hall of Seven Kills to their sects, intending to follow humanity's lead and search for the severed-arm ancient corpse across the Witch God Continent.
What if it had landed in the Witch God Continent?
The Hall of Seven Kills was one of humanity's most critical secret realms; perhaps the severed-arm ancient corpse harbored some secret.
Relying solely on those who had visited the Hall of Seven Kills, their influence was limited; they could not possibly mobilize the strength of the entire Witch God Continent and needed the backing of the Nascent Soul Patriarchs.
However, when Du Han reported to his sect, it was like a stone sinking into the sea. Later, he learned that his master was in seclusion.
Unexpectedly, after contacting others, he discovered that the other sects were in the exact same state. The Nascent Soul Patriarchs of the major sects had coincidentally all chosen this time to enter closed-door cultivation.
Among them was even a peerless major sect ranked among the top three in the Witch Clan, whose Nascent Soul Patriarchs had all gone into seclusion without showing themselves.
Such a coincidence could never happen by chance!
They immediately realized that those Nascent Soul Patriarchs might have left their sects long ago, undoubtedly secretly plotting something of paramount importance.
The Witch Clan was not a monolith. What momentous event could possibly engulf the entire upper echelon of the Witch Clan?
Compared to a grand affair concerning the whole Witch Clan, what did a severed-arm ancient corpse matter?
The Witch Clan had likely chosen this moment to make their secret move because humanity's attention was captivated by the Hall of Seven Kills, making it far easier to blind human eyes.
When Qin Sang learned of this, he immediately cast it to the back of his mind.
Although he was human, he did not hail from the Canglang Sea and would not risk exposing himself to blow the whistle on anything.
Moreover, the Witch Clan had not deliberately concealed it; they presumably only needed to buy a bit of time and were not afraid of being discovered by humanity—in fact, their objective had likely succeeded long ago.
With all the Witch Clan Nascent Soul experts vanishing at once, human spies embedded within the Witch Clan had surely noticed the anomaly long before, so there was no need for Qin Sang to meddle redundantly.
Without the support of their sects, Du Han and the others could only contact fellow daoists on their own, each picking a relatively safe area to gather information and try their luck.
If they wanted to conduct a massive search across the entire Witch Clan territory, they would have to wait until those Nascent Soul Patriarchs returned to their sects before a decision could be made.
The area Du Han chose was the northern part of the Western Frontier, including the Bear Mountain region and surrounding lands. Other friends and fellow disciples of Du Han were scattered across various parts of the Western Frontier to investigate.
The Western Frontier was vast, and the local cultivators were not very strong, so they naturally intended to search it thoroughly.
As for why Du Han chose this region:
First, while in the Hall of Seven Kills, he had bought information from a newly acquainted human Golden Core cultivator that a Thousand Hands Spider Fruit was hidden in the Bear Mountain region, which could aid his eldest disciple in Core Formation.
Second, it was for a spiritual herb known as Jinlan grass.
Jinlan grass itself was not exceptionally precious.
Later, cultivators discovered that Jinlan grass had a certain effect against the demonic fiend qi rooted in the origin soul, and its value skyrocketed overnight. By now, it had been completely harvested and grown quite rare.
Du Han had discovered this particular Jinlan grass by chance deep within the Western Frontier. At the time, it had not yet reached its peak potency, so he had slain the guardian spirit beast and laid down a restriction to conceal the herb's aura.
Recently, the Jinlan grass had matured. Upon returning to the Witch God Continent, Du Han had been impatient to harvest it personally.
Chapter 662