Yellow Light Orb

A dense forest spanning several qing, located to the southwest of Zhuqi County.

Ye Qin stood hidden behind a large tree, frowning as he watched the young man in white who had been tailing him ever since he left the inn. The young man in white wandered aimlessly through the small woods for a long time, never once locating him, before finally slapping a tree in frustration and departing toward the distant county town.

Only then did Ye Qin slowly emerge from the woods.

To be honest, the young man in white possessed exceptional lightness skills.

But once inside this small forest, having fancy footwork was not enough. Ye Qin's ears could easily detect the slightest vibration of withered branches and leaves on the ground within several zhang; even the passage of a light breeze could not escape his senses, let alone the tread of a human.

Every movement the young man in white made in the forest was transparent to him.

Although this forest was not large, it still covered several qing, leaving the young man in white to wander blindly like a headless fly.

Ye Qin did not employ any special lightness techniques; he simply took a few casual steps before the young man in white could spot him, drifting from behind one tree to another, rendering himself completely invisible to the pursuer.

The young man in white sprinted wildly through the woods for quite a while, feeling as though Ye Qin had vanished into thin air, unable to find any trace of him, and eventually had to leave in a fit of vexation.

Ye Qin walked over to the tree that the young man in white had struck.

He frowned deeply.

On the tree, there remained a half-inch deep, charred handprint, emitting the unpleasant smell of scorched bark. The man's scorching, masculine internal energy had clearly reached a profound level.

It seemed that whether in terms of lightness skills or internal energy, he was far from being a match for that young man in white.

The only things he could rely on were his superior speed and keen senses. He could judge the young man's next move before he even struck and preemptively counter. In these two aspects, he held the advantage.

As for a real fight, who would win and who would lose was hard to say; only a clash would reveal the truth.

Ye Qin couldn't help but reflect inwardly that he lacked offensive means and his cultivation was still too low; he lacked the strength to protect himself against top-tier experts and had to elevate his practice of the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra as soon as possible.

Once he finished the first layer of the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra: Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness and entered the second layer, he would be enough to look down upon those so-called first-rate martial artists. As long as he completed the second layer and entered the third, he would have enough confidence that even if he encountered the most elite martial experts, he would have nothing to fear. If he completed the third layer, there would be nowhere in the tens of thousands of miles of Ping Province he could not go!

Thinking of the young man in white wandering the woods like a headless fly, only to leave in a state of extreme frustration, made him secretly amused, and his mood lightened instantly. All of this was enough to prove that the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra was a remarkably good cultivation technique.

Ye Qin took the Cyan Jade Pendant from the pouch at his waist, looked at it eagerly, then turned and sprinted toward the desolate ridges in the northwest, choosing only the most difficult paths to traverse. He needed to find a quiet, uninhabited place to meditate and make up for the cultivation he had paused over the past few days.

What Ye Qin did not notice at this moment was that the Cyan Jade Pendant he gripped tightly in his hand had developed some anomalies; a faint, wispy shadow seemed to be constantly thrashing within, trying to break out from inside the jade.

Ye Qin flew to a forest of jagged rocks more than ten miles northwest of the county town, crawled into a stone cave within one of the giant boulders, and sat down cross-legged.

This boulder had a very small opening, making it impossible for anyone passing through the rock forest to notice that someone was hiding here; it was a place for secluded cultivation he had carefully selected after spending the better part of a day.

Without overthinking, he silently channeled his divine sense, sending the Cyan Jade Pendant in his hand into the Purple Mansion within his Mud Pill. With a flick of his divine sense, the Cyan Jade Pendant vanished from his hand in an instant.

Endless void, Purple Mansion floating island.

A Cyan Jade Pendant appeared out of thin air on the floating island, and the mist within it was thrashing violently, attempting to break free.

Then, with a loud bang, the Cyan Jade Pendant shattered into countless fragments. A yellow ball of light the size of a thumb shot into the sky. Accompanying its ascent was an aura of extreme resentment and violence.

"Ahahaha, this old man Nan Tianba has finally escaped from this damned jade pendant! Twenty years! I have waited for a full twenty years, and finally, I have encountered a low-level qi refiner with spiritual roots. Truly, Heaven has not abandoned me!"

The yellow ball of light shouted and clamored, its mouth rapidly chanting a long string of incantations. As it chanted, mysterious, glowing yellow symbols appeared around the yellow ball of light, as if it were casting some sort of spell.

It had been trapped in this damned Cyan Jade Pendant for a full two hundred years, unable to cultivate, its vital energy constantly dissipating; it had long been impatient for a physical body. Now that it had emerged from the pendant, it could not wait to immediately cast the Possession Technique to seize a soul.

However, when it clearly saw where it was, it was suddenly stunned.

This was a barren island, a hundred li in circumference, covered in gray rock. It floated in the void, and in the distance, there was nothing but deathly, gray mist, with no end in sight.

What, what kind of hellish place is this?

Where is that black-clad brat with the spiritual roots? Where did he run off to?

The yellow ball of light hovered in mid-air, stunned for a long while.

With no one around, who was it supposed to cast the Possession Technique on?

It rotated its body, only then noticing a large stone stele in the center of the floating island. Beside the stele was a small field where dozens of green blades of grass were planted. Near the field were a few small pieces of Cyan Rock, and a small piece of deep cyan spirit stone.

However, its focus was not on the field or the Cyan Rock, but entirely on that large stone stele. Because floating above the large stone stele was a weak, white ball of light.

The yellow ball of light was overjoyed.

Though also the size of a thumb, this white ball of light was clearly several times thinner than itself. It was already a fairly bright yellow ball of light, while this white ball of light had only just formed, remaining very sparse. Judging by the situation, it was a primordial spirit that had just entered the second layer of the Qi Refining stage, far inferior to its own earth-elemental primordial spirit at the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

The yellow ball of light immediately dashed toward the large stone stele, wanting to devour the white ball of light. Even though it hadn't found where the black-clad brat was, finding a weak primordial spirit was not bad; at least it could absorb a portion of vital energy to replenish its own weakened state.

On the Life Primordial Spirit Stele, Ye Qin watched in a daze as the bizarre scene of the Cyan Jade Pendant exploding unfolded, followed by the sight of a thumb-sized, ferocious yellow ball of light rushing out from the pendant, then clawing and screeching in mid-air, raving about things like the Possession Technique.

A chill crept into Ye Qin's heart.

He suddenly realized he had made a mistake—a grave mistake. Perhaps he should never have sent this Cyan Jade Pendant into the Purple Mansion. This pendant actually hid something like himself. It was likely of the same kind, but a far more ferocious one, and it appeared to be several times more powerful than his own. In the presence of this powerful peer, he felt an instinctive fear.

The Cyan Jade Pendant had brought him no benefits; instead, it had brought him immense trouble.

The yellow ball of light was rushing toward his location.

Ye Qin's eyes narrowed, and he retreated in terror, hiding behind the large stone stele. However, he dared not leave the Life Primordial Spirit Stele; in his experience, other parts of the floating island were even less safe than this. At the very least, the Purple Lightning threads had never entered the light barrier of the large stone stele.

The yellow ball of light did not notice the existence of the light barrier. It lunged to within a few zhang of the large stone stele, and just as it was about to reach the front of the stele to seize the trembling white ball of light, it suddenly collided with a thin, soft, glowing protective shield, and with a "thump," it was bounced back more than a zhang away.