It turned out to be a message from Grand Sect Leader Mu Zhongping. In essence, they had broken through layer upon layer of encirclement and reached the vicinity of the inner city. He had also sent me a brief mnemonic for safe navigation, essentially a simple method for determining direction and position. If it was genuine, however, it was an exceedingly precious thing.
I did not hide it from Ye Yunqiu, displaying the message directly before him.
"What do you think? Fellow Daoist Ye, are you interested in infiltrating the inner city again?" I asked tentatively.
Ye Yunqiu smiled bitterly and shook his head. "At present, we can barely keep ourselves safe. If not for Fellow Daoist Xia, we probably wouldn't even have enough supplies to get out. How could we still dream of going in? Before entering the Immortal Kingdom, I, Ye Yunqiu, had thought that my strength was already enough to run rampant here. But now... I finally understand how shallow my knowledge and abilities are. Fellow Daoists Wei and Chen have both recovered some of their primeval energy, but how could I continue making them risk their lives with me? Let's call our exploration of the Immortal Kingdom here and let our elders decide what to do after we return."
Ye Yunqiu's answer was only natural. Even whether we could get out alive was beyond our control. On one side were the Eight-Tribulation Ghost Immortals hunting us everywhere; on the other were ghost cultivators wandering all over the place. If Ye Yunqiu ran into either force, he would suffer terribly. If we entered the inner city and provoked some powerful ghost creature, it would truly be an ambush from all sides—we wouldn't be able to escape even if we wanted to.
"Mm, that's fine too. Then I'll