Under the scorching Samadhi True Fire, the drop of scarlet liquid quickly vaporized, eventually turning into the hazy white silhouette of a dog that floated before Yang Jian.
The white dog looked exactly like Sky-Howling Dog, who was locked away in the system space.
At the sight, Yang Jian's expression relaxed. He took a few steps forward, his gaze never leaving the white dog's silhouette.
With a sharp pop, the dog-shaped shadow grew increasingly indistinct, then shattered and vanished.
Yang Jian froze. He abruptly turned and looked in every direction, then hurried south.
After traveling about a mile, he took out the jade bottle again and used his Magic Power to draw out another drop of liquid. As before, he burned it with Samadhi True Fire.
This time, however, the drop of red liquid dissolved into wisps of crimson vapor amid the terrifying flames and vanished without forming Sky-Howling Dog's silhouette.
Yang Jian furrowed his brows, glanced toward the distant Royal Palace, and quickly ducked into a nearby alley.
Almost as soon as he disappeared, a small bird flapped out of the alley. It circled once high in the sky, then flew north.
The red liquid had been extracted from Sky-Howling Dog's blood essence.
This secret technique was a way to search for Sky-Howling Dog.
If the dog was within ten miles, Yang Jian would sense it, and its phantom image would appear.
The more solid the image, the closer Sky-Howling Dog was to him.
But the method had an obvious drawback: it could only tell him whether Sky-Howling Dog was within ten miles. It couldn't reveal its direction.
When he refined Sky-Howling Dog's blood essence the first time, the dog had clearly been within ten miles, but it had soon disappeared. That meant that in the brief moment between, Sky-Howling Dog had moved more than ten miles away from him.
The second time he refined the blood essence, no phantom appeared at all, which meant the dog was still beyond the ten-mile range.
If he used this method to check in every direction, he should be able to narrow down Sky-Howling Dog's location soon.
Unfortunately, Yang Jian had extracted only three drops of the dog's blood essence, as a precaution.
He hadn't expected he would ever need them. After all, his beast was with him every day. How could it possibly get lost?
Yang Jian didn't use the last drop of blood essence right away. After sensing the surroundings from the air, he flew north.
Two female Qi Cultivators were heading that way.
He hadn't spotted any Qi Cultivators to the east or west.
Whoever had stolen Sky-Howling Dog from him couldn't possibly be an ordinary person, so he could rule out anyone without Magic Power.
It wasn't easy for Qi Cultivators to sense whether someone else was one of their kind, either. If both were Qi Cultivators and the other person wasn't using Magic Power, there was no way to tell.
So Qi Cultivators sensed each other's cultivation by their Magic Power: the stronger the Magic Power, the higher the cultivation; the weaker the Magic Power, the lower it was.
But if the other person deliberately concealed their Magic Power, this method couldn't be trusted.
As it happened, the two female Qi Cultivators were both using Magic Power when he sensed them, enhancing their speed as they hurried north.
Transformed into a small bird, Yang Jian searched again, relying on his connection with Sky-Howling Dog, but found no clues.
It seemed the other party had a special way to conceal Sky-Howling Dog's presence.
The bird flew right past the two female Qi Cultivators and landed behind an unoccupied residence. It transformed back into the scholar and sauntered onto the main street.
Ahead, the two female Qi Cultivators, one in red and one in white, were just reaching him.
"Greetings, fellow cultivators!"
Yang Jian raised his folding fan and lightly blocked their path, stopping them in the street.
Nine Heavens Profound Maiden and Nine Nether Pure Maiden glanced at Yang Jian and exchanged a look. Nine Heavens Profound Maiden, dressed in red, gave a slight nod. "Greetings, fellow cultivator. What is it?"
"Heh. I'm Yang Jian, from Jade Spring Mountain. You two should know what brings me here, shouldn't you?" Yang Jian said with a quiet laugh, studying their expressions as he spoke.
He hadn't used his last drop of Sky-Howling Dog's blood essence. He wasn't sure the dog was really with these two fellow cultivators, so he could only try to bluff them first.
The trouble was that he'd blocked their path in the middle of the street, spoken rudely, and invoked Jade Spring Mountain.
As disciples of Goddess Nuwa, Nine Heavens Profound Maiden and Nine Nether Pure Maiden knew exactly what Jade Spring Mountain was.
They knew all about the rift between the Chan Sect and Goddess Nuwa. This Yang Jian had used a transformation technique and was now trying to intimidate them with the Chan Sect.
The Chan Sect might be powerful, but the Monster Race was no pushover. They couldn't just let anyone bully them.
Nine Nether Pure Maiden took it in stride. Gentle and reserved by nature, she only furrowed her brows slightly at his words.
But Nine Heavens Profound Maiden had a fiery temper and a forthright nature. How could she put up with Yang Jian's tone?
She had no idea that Yang Jian was speaking as though she and her companion had stolen Sky-Howling Dog.
"So what if you're from Jade Spring Mountain? Hiding your face means you must be up to no good. How are we supposed to know what you're after?" Nine Heavens Profound Maiden shot back, her words edged with sarcasm.
The two women were peerlessly beautiful, and the scholar Yang Jian had transformed into was handsome and charming. Their confrontation immediately drew a crowd.
Di Xin and Gun Juan arrived just then as well.
[Host made the correct choice. The mission has been completed. Reward: High-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasure, Golden Flood Dragon Scissors.]
At that very moment, a line of text appeared before Di Xin's eyes.
Di Xin let out a long breath and stopped in his tracks.
The system's reward meant the danger had passed. There was a commotion here, so he might as well take a look—especially since the two beauties were so dazzling.
As he watched, he examined the system space. The High-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasure the system had just awarded was golden and shaped like a pair of scissors, though it differed considerably from ordinary scissors.
Its two crossed blades had no sharp edges. They looked like two flood dragons coiled around each other, and the whole thing was only about the size of his palm.
"Golden Flood Dragon Scissors... So this is the Golden Flood Dragon Scissors... Huh, that name sounds familiar!"
Di Xin turned the treasure's name over in his mind. Suddenly, his expression changed. He finally remembered.
The Golden Flood Dragon Scissors had been famous in the War of the Investiture of the Gods, where it had performed many great feats. It was the treasure Zhao Gongming had borrowed from Lady Yunxiao.
"Lady Yunxiao... Lady Yunxiao..."
Thinking of that fearsome powerhouse, Di Xin realized things had gotten serious.
Lady Yunxiao was a disciple of Lord Tongtian, the leader of the Interception Sect.
That meant he would have to deal with disciples of both the Chan Sect and the Interception Sect, as well as Goddess Nuwa of the Monster Race.
In the original War of the Investiture of the Gods, the Interception Sect had sided with King Zhou. Whatever the reason—avenging fallen disciples, answering Grand Tutor Wen's invitation, or Lord Tongtian's conflict with Primordial Lord of Heaven—they had all helped Yin Shang.
And now the system had actually stolen Lady Yunxiao's treasure.
Lady Yunxiao was powerful in her own right, and either of her two younger sisters, Qiong Xiao and Bi Xiao, could easily crush a little Qi Cultivator like him, still in the middle stage of the Human Flower Realm.
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