Ye Changqing's words stabbed straight into Zhou Xuan's mind, piercing painfully deep.
The Extreme Bone Ruins. Three thousand zhang underground. A one-way cross-region Stone Gate connected to Central Province.
Zhou Xuan looked down at his hands. The splits across his knuckles were still bleeding, the black scabs burned into his shoulder by demonic qi were spreading downward, and pitifully little spiritual energy remained in his meridians. His internal organs ached faintly.
He had just returned from the Boundary-Breaking Mountains.
Not a single wound on his body had healed.
"How long have the fluctuations lasted?"
Ye Changqing raised a finger. "A quarter of an hour! It's been exactly a quarter of an hour since we first detected the signal, and there's no sign of it weakening!"
"Whoever it is must still be inside!"
"Most likely!" Ye Changqing's voice trembled. "I compared the frequency signature three times. It shares the same source as Pei Zhengyang's Jade Pendant. This is definitely someone from Central Province! These fluctuations are more than one tier above Pei Zhengyang's. I can't even gauge the upper limit of their cultivation!"
Lin Qingzhu's face turned ashen. "You mean the Central Province Immortal Alliance used Pei Zhengyang and those five Spirit Transformation cultivators as a diversion to draw our attention, while secretly sending a true expert into the Extreme Bone Ruins?"
"That's not what I mean. That's what happened!"
Zhou Xuan withdrew his hand from the Secret Chamber's doorframe.
His mind raced.
On the surface, Pei Zhengyang's spectacle in Jade Dragon City had been about flaunting supplies, scouting the city's defenses, and stealing data with his Jade Pendant. He had made enough noise for the whole city to notice. Everyone's attention had been focused entirely on Jade Dragon City then, including Zhou Xuan's own.
Immediately afterward, he had left the