Luo Qian's whereabouts still needed to be found, but re-entering that secret realm meant there was no guarantee he wouldn't run into the three-headed snake demon again. It had taken him over a dozen years just to recover to his original state, and though the might of his sword array had increased somewhat, allowing him to grasp the profundity of a sword embryo, he still couldn't use it for long periods.
The three-headed snake demon's strength far surpassed his own, and she must have recovered faster than he did. In his current state, even if he ran into the three-headed snake demon again, it would be a losing battle with no chance of victory. Once that three-headed snake demon Bi Qiong recovered to her peak state as a great demon, escaping would likely prove difficult.
Now that he had obtained the spiritual marrow crystal jade, once his body-refining cultivation broke through to the Tenth Tier, the Devouring Soul Art would be able to unleash even greater might. If he could collect the soul essences of a few more twelfth-tier fierce beasts, facing that three-headed snake demon—even if he couldn't defeat her—securing his own survival wouldn't be entirely out of the question.
When he had originally pursued that palace-dressed woman, he had been intercepted halfway by the three-headed snake demon Bi Qiong. That palace-dressed woman was familiar with the Blood Cauldron Demon-Refining Array, and the direction she fled was toward the entrance between the Xiang State and the secret realm. Since she was alone, establishing a foothold in the secret realm wouldn't be easy. Lu Xiaotian deduced that she had most likely fled back to the Crimson Abyss Continent, possibly within the Xiang State, though the possibility of her having gone to other immortal cultivation nations couldn't be completely ruled out.