Parting Ways

Song Wen fell into a deep silence.

He did not care much about the faint hostility Zi Yi had shown. He was confident that even if he could not defeat Lao Chun and Zi Yi together, protecting his own life would not be an issue.

With his Blood Escape Technique alone, neither of them would ever be able to catch up to him.

What he was truly weighing was whether it would be safer to head out alone to retrieve the Empty Cicada Wood, or if it would be more secure to have Xuan Ye, who knew the local terrain, accompany him.

After a long moment of contemplation, Song Wen finally spoke.

"Very well. I shall accompany you to retrieve the Snake Scale Fruits first. However, you must promise that once we have them, you will accompany me to obtain the Empty Cicada Wood."

A flash of joy crossed Xuan Ye's face. "Rest assured, Fellow Daoist. As long as we secure the Snake Scale Fruits, I will absolutely accompany you on that journey."

Song Wen nodded, accepting the promise for what it was. As for whether Xuan Ye would actually keep his word, Song Wen did not waste time worrying over it.

If the man dared to go back on his word when the time came, Song Wen had plenty of ways to force his compliance.

Before long, the party of five arrived at the fork in the path Xuan Ye had mentioned.

Upon learning that Xuan Ye, Niu Ding, and Song Wen were all taking the left passage toward the snake cave, Zi Yi bid them farewell without any hesitation. The poison in her father's body had grown severe and time was of the essence; she had to press on toward the area where the Forsythia Yellow grew.

Once Zi Yi and Lao Chun had departed, Xuan Ye led Song Wen and Niu Ding into the left passage.

As they walked, Xuan Ye spoke up.

"Niu Ding, you can finally tell us the exact location of your older brother's corpse, can you not?"

Throughout their journey so far, Niu Ding had remained tight-lipped regarding the precise coordinates of his brother's remains.

"According to the survivor who accompanied my brother, they came to these subterranean chasms in search of Snake Scale Fruits as well," Niu Ding explained. "However, before they could even reach the snake cave, they were ambushed by a swarm of ghosts. Among them were numerous Wraiths whose strength rivaled cultivators at the late-stage of Qi Condensation. My brother was cut off, surrounded by those Wraiths, and never made it out."

"If he was attacked by Wraiths, there is still a chance we might recover the body," Xuan Ye murmured thoughtfully. "Had he fallen to Walking Corpses, the likelihood of finding anything left would be dreadfully low."

Ghosts fed upon souls and a cultivator's refined essence, whereas Walking Corpses devoured flesh and bone. Those slain by Wraiths often left whole corpses behind, but those slain by Walking Corpses were typically stripped to nothing.

"By the way, how long has it been since your brother's demise?" Xuan Ye asked.

"A month!"

"A whole month already?" Xuan Ye muttered under his breath.

In truth, Xuan Ye did not care in the slightest whether Niu Ding ever recovered his brother's body. So long as he walked this path with Niu Ding, his promise would be fulfilled. The final outcome was entirely out of his hands.

What truly concerned Xuan Ye was the underlying information in Niu Ding's words.

From their casual conversations along the way, Xuan Ye knew that Niu Ding's brother had been at the Eighth Layer of Qi Condensation. For someone of that strength to be swarmed and slaughtered by Wraiths...

If the three of them encountered that same horde of ghosts, it would be an incredibly perilous affair.

Yet, a month had already passed. One could only hope those free-roaming Wraiths had drifted elsewhere by now.

The three of them pressed forward through the winding, twisting tunnels for over two hours.

Suddenly, the tunnel-which had been a mere five meters wide-opened up vastly. An irregular cavern spanning roughly a hundred meters wide appeared before their eyes.

Across the cavern walls were hundreds of hollow nests, both large and small.

Niu Ding pointed toward the cavern walls a hundred meters ahead and spoke abruptly. "This should be the place where my brother met his end."

His words caused Song Wen and Xuan Ye's hearts to tighten. Becoming instantly alert, their footsteps ground to a halt.

The cavern was deathly still, so quiet that Song Wen could hear the rhythm of his own heartbeat and breathing.

"Silence, everyone. Use the Voice Transmission Technique to communicate."

Xuan Ye's voice echoed directly within the minds of Song Wen and Niu Ding.

"Niu Ding, hurry and search for your brother's remains, but keep your movements quiet. Those nests give me an incredibly ominous feeling."

Typically, a cultivator at the Seventh Layer of Qi Condensation possessed a Divine Sense that could span roughly a hundred meters. While individual talent could cause slight variations, the difference was rarely significant unless one specialized in techniques meant to hone the spirit.

The three of them were currently over two hundred meters away from the far side of the cavern, well beyond the reach of Niu Ding and Xuan Ye's Divine Sense.

They could only rely on the dim illumination of their glow stones to catch the faint outlines of the nests on the distant walls.

Just as Niu Ding was about to creep forward into the cavern to begin his search, Song Wen's voice transmission reached them.

"There is no need to wander blindly. Look at the far-left side. Only the eighth nest counting upward from the bottom contains a corpse. The rest of the nests are entirely empty of human remains."

Hearing Song Wen's transmission, both Niu Ding and Xuan Ye stared back in utter disbelief.

The nests were over two hundred meters away, and Song Wen was only at the Sixth Layer of Qi Condensation.

Could Song Wen have concealed his true cultivation?

Was he actually a cultivator at the Perfection of Qi Condensation?

"Do not let your imaginations run wild. My spiritual sense simply happens to be sharper than that of ordinary people,"

Song Wen transmitted back smoothly, noticing their shock. He wanted to nip any dangerous speculation in the bud before it caused unnecessary complications.

Accepting his explanation without digging deeper, Niu Ding quickly transmitted his next question.

"Brother Guo Tao, are you certain?"

Song Wen nodded and replied, "I am certain. The body lies about ten meters inside the mouth of that nest. It is a male corpse, tall, standing around seven chi. However, the flesh has completely desiccated; it is nothing more than a withered corpse now."

Joy flooded Niu Ding's face as he replied, "That matches perfectly! It must be my brother's corpse."

Seeing Niu Ding preparing to rush toward the nest, Song Wen promptly sent a warning transmission.

"Fellow Daoist Niu, it would be wise to tread with caution. The interiors of those nests are intricate and interconnected, reaching down to depths unknown. Although I have not detected any ghosts active near the surface, I feel a persistent, hair-raising dread. Your brother's corpse will not be so easily retrieved."

Ever since they had stepped into these subterranean depths, Song Wen had been utilizing his Beetle Gu to scout the path ahead.

The Beetle Gu had already conducted a preliminary sweep of the nests' outer perimeters without discovering any ghosts, but Song Wen had refrained from letting them venture deep into the layout. If there were truly powerful entities lurking deep inside, his Beetle Gu would be detected and destroyed, which would be an unacceptable loss for him.

Ultimately, it was Niu Ding who was risking his life to enter the nest, not Song Wen. Pointing out the exact location of the body was already going well beyond his obligations.

Hearing both Song Wen and Xuan Ye speak of the extreme danger, Niu Ding-despite his burning impatience-reined in his steps and transmitted a plea for guidance.

"Fellow Daoist Xuan Ye, what do you think we should do?"

Xuan Ye replied through transmission, "We know absolutely nothing about the internal conditions of those nests. Charging in blindly carries far too much risk. We must find a way to ascertain whether ghosts are lurking inside, and if so, what their exact numbers and strengths are."

Niu Ding hesitated before answering, "According to my brother's surviving companion, they were ambushed by over a hundred ghosts here, and the number of powerful Wraiths among them was no fewer than twenty."

"Over twenty Wraiths?!"

Song Wen's eyes widened instantly upon hearing the number. A sudden, overwhelming urge to turn around and flee washed over him.

With over twenty Wraiths whose strength rivaled the late-stage of Qi Condensation, alongside nearly a hundred lesser ghosts, how could a few ordinary Qi Condensation cultivators possibly hope to withstand them?

What kind of extraordinary treasure could Niu Ding's brother possibly have carried to make Niu Ding willing to brave such staggering danger just to recover a mere corpse?

At this moment, Song Wen no longer believed for a single second that Niu Ding was risking his life solely out of brotherly devotion.

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