Probing

Lonely Island.

Under the dim, heavy sky, Shangguan Qin waved her arms in constant, frantic gestures, despair gradually etching itself onto her face.

She looked as though her very spirit had been hollowed out; every posture and glance she revealed was saturated with intense, negative emotion.

Just then.

Gray, translucent "Spirit Sha" quietly emerged around Wulan Lake, drifting silently toward the island at the lake's heart.

If the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda were still soaring above the island, any "Spirit Sha" entering the island's perimeter would have become its prey.

Within a certain range, no "Spirit Sha" could withstand the terrifying soul-targeting magnetic field released by the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda.

As long as the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda remained active, it could hunt the "Spirit Sha" on the island; that was why, while it was still whistling through the air, not a single "Spirit Sha" lurking in the shadows had dared to show itself.

It was only after Pang Jian entered the island, and the island inexplicably sank and crashed in its bizarre descent, that the "Spirit Sha" finally mobilized.

Before long, those "Spirit Sha" were scattered around the island, still deliberately avoiding the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda atop the low hill.

"The guy beneath that pit, in Shangguan Qin's view, would find it very easy to finish the two of us off."

Luo Hongyan curled her lip, twisting a vibrant, blooming red flower in her hand. She plucked the petals off one by one and said, "Shangguan Qin is just like this flower; the vitality in her eyes is gone, and the life force within her is fading."

"I suspect that someone who has suffered the same Phoenix Marrow heart-devouring fate as Ouyang Duanhai is currently beneath that pit."

She dropped the denuded, withered stem, stepped over the carpet of petals, and pulled Pang Jian back, saying, "Let's retreat as she intended and not alert the fellow in the pit just yet."

Pang Jian was forcibly dragged back by her.

Naturally, he did not see that as he left the summit of the low hill, some "Spirit Sha" had already begun to haunt the flower beds near Shangguan Qin.

"Whoosh!"

Just as Pang Jian turned his head, he saw a cultivator loyal to He Rong walking toward the pristine Heavenly Spirit Pagoda.

When the man was still a dozen paces from the pagoda, he suddenly collapsed with a soft thud, never to stand again.

A faint, ghostly shadow flew out from the crown of his head, instantly vanishing into a window on the top floor of the White Tower.

Su Yuntian and He Rong had been watching the man nervously; seeing him suddenly collapse and his soul violently ripped away, their expressions turned ghastly.

Only then did they believe that Luo Hongyan's words were no lie—this White Tower from the Yin Spirit Temple was indeed terrifyingly strange.

Luo Hongyan sneered, "I warned you not to go near the White Tower."

He Rong, already dissatisfied with her, listened to her mockery and said in a deep voice, "We know nothing of the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda. If we don't test it, how are we to know if what you say is true or false?"

"Fair enough. If you don't suffer a little, you truly won't learn your lesson."

Luo Hongyan's lips curled into a mocking arc, and she said indifferently, "It's not my people dying anyway. Since you want to test it, you might as well send a few more to try again."

She cast a malicious gaze, flickering back and forth over the servants loyal to the two families.

Those she looked at, having just seen a companion die from a soul-extraction, subconsciously avoided her eyes and dared not look at He Rong or Su Yuntian either.

They were terrified that He Rong and Su Yuntian would use them to continue probing the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda.

"Girl Ning, we don't know the wonders of the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda, so how do you know them?"

Su Yuntian couldn't help but question her.

"In the Upper Realm, someone from the Galaxy Alliance took a fancy to me and told me the secrets of the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda."

Luo Hongyan lied casually, gazing at the seemingly holy, snow-white Heavenly Spirit Pagoda, where she too could feel the dense "Profound Yin Power."

After a moment of hesitation, she suddenly said to Pang Jian, "The lowest level of the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda should have an array laid out with spirit stones, responsible for the pagoda's aerial operations."

She looked up at the top floor of the White Tower, studied the four open windows, and continued:

"On the top floor, there is another array. I don't know what spirit materials it's built from, but I do know that because of that array, the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda is able to pull in the souls of nearby living beings."

"The guy under the pit is doing something unknown for now; he likely hasn't discovered that the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda has crashed."

"Before he comes out, we had best destroy the array that poses the greatest threat to us all. We have no way of knowing if, once that fellow leaves the pit, he will be able to pilot the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda back into the sky."

She laid out her thoughts.

Pang Jian nodded and said, "Mm, Shangguan Qin doesn't dare make a sound because she doesn't want to alert him either."

"Shangguan Qin?"

"She is on the island too?"

Su Yuntian and He Rong asked hurriedly, walking toward the highest point of the low hill as they spoke, wanting to verify it for themselves.

Luo Hongyan said leisurely, "She waved earlier to signal us to flee this island quickly. Beside her is a pit pierced through by a Phoenix Bone; someone inside must have obtained a drop of Phoenix Marrow and transformed into a Heavenly Phoenix Divine Guard."

"That person is definitely far more powerful than Ouyang Duanhai. Shangguan Qin feels that if we go over there, we are just throwing our lives away."

He Rong and Su Yuntian heard her, yet they still went to the summit of the low hill to observe.

They saw Shangguan Qin, too.

Beside the pit that delved deep into the island, Shangguan Qin was anxiously gesturing for the two of them to leave at once.

Luo Hongyan's eyes flickered, and she said hesitantly, "Pang Jian, I cannot approach the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda; anyone else who gets close will die."

"But I don't know why, I feel that only you can approach the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda without dying. If you can get close and use the spear in your hand to break that soul-pulling array, it will cease to function."

She looked over with an expectant expression.

Pang Jian was dumbfounded, pointing at himself as he asked, "Me?"

Luo Hongyan nodded earnestly, tempting him, "The lowest level of the White Tower should be paved with many spirit stones. And the top level, where the materials forming a strange soul formation are located, should also be quite precious."

Pang Jian shook his head. "I'm not going."

The state of the previous man's corpse made him quite wary of the White Tower before him; he did not want to approach it rashly.

Luo Hongyan felt annoyed in her heart. Her gaze swept across his chest, and she desperately wanted to say that with that miraculous bronze plaque and the drop of Phoenix Marrow he had refined, he would certainly be able to keep his soul from leaving his body.

But once she revealed that, her identity might be exposed, so she could only force herself to hold back.

After a long while.

"Forget it, I'll just try it myself."

Seeing that she could not persuade him, Luo Hongyan sighed helplessly and suddenly headed toward the White Tower.

The moment she walked toward the White Tower, Pang Jian felt the chilling "Profound Yin Power" radiating from the tower suddenly become much denser.

In the void.

The enchanting blood shadow manifested by Luo Hongyan suddenly flared with striking red light, immediately alarming the real Ning Yao.

"Whoosh!"

The red-skirted silhouette hidden in Ning Yao's mind was clearly being pulled by the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda, twisting and swaying within Ning Yao's consciousness.

At the same time, Ning Yao clearly sensed that the power that had been imprisoning her was also distorting.

The restriction Luo Hongyan had placed upon her was actually being tugged at by the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda, showing signs of loosening.

Longing for freedom, Ning Yao was instantly stirred with excitement.

"Heh, if I am sucked away by the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda, do you think you can still survive?"

Luo Hongyan sneered, speaking in a relatively soft voice, "Before I boarded the island, I didn't know this White Tower would fall. I dared to come onto the island because I felt that as long as I didn't enter the White Tower, I could stabilize my soul within your body."

"If I were to be sucked into the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda, with your fragile soul, wouldn't you be torn to shreds in the blink of an eye?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the excited Ning Yao felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured over her, and she immediately quieted down.

Before the White Tower.

Luo Hongyan suddenly turned around, two lines of blood flowing from her nostrils, as if she were struggling to resist the soul-pulling force of the White Tower.

Terror and despair suddenly appeared in her eyes. She reached out toward Pang Jian like a drowning person trying to grab a final straw, screaming with a pale face, "Pang Jian, save me! Quickly pull me back, pull me away from the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda!"

It was as if she were being corrupted by a terrifying evil force; lacking the ability to withdraw from the "Heavenly Spirit Pagoda" on her own, she could only let out a desperate wail, longing for Pang Jian's rescue.

Su Yuntian, He Rong, and everyone else were shocked by this scene, feeling their hair stand on end.

She had long since passed the corpse of the He Family servant; she was now within ten steps of the White Tower!

"Stay away from the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda!"

He Rong not only had no intention of saving her, but he also ordered all his loyal subordinates to stay even further away from the sinister Heavenly Spirit Pagoda.

"Father!"

Su Meng cried out.

Su Yuntian kept a grim face, shook his head calmly, and barked, "Both you and I are at the same cultivation level as her; we are only in the Pulse-Opening Realm. Since she cannot hold on, we will only die if we go over. Don't do anything stupid!"

Seeing Su Meng's unbearable expression and fearing she might act impulsively, Su Yuntian grabbed her arm.

Su Meng was restrained, watching Luo Hongyan with longing eyes, feeling helpless.

"You're courting death yourself, why must you drag me into it?"

Just then, Pang Jian cursed with a livid face and took a step toward Luo Hongyan.

After one step came the second, then the third.

Pang Jian felt no discomfort whatsoever!

The next moment, Su Meng felt her vision blur, and she saw that Pang Jian had already reached Luo Hongyan's side.

This time, he did not avoid physical contact; he wrapped an arm around Luo Hongyan's slender waist and, clamping her against his side, retreated rapidly through the air.

"Pang... brother!"

Under her father's restraint, Su Meng twisted her body and shouted excitedly, her apple-like round face flushed with agitation.

He Rong, Su Yuntian, and the servants of both families all stared with wide eyes at the pair.

Pang Jian's soul had not left his body, nor had he been sucked away by the soul formation inside the White Tower.

Luo Hongyan, who was clamped under his arm and looking up at him awkwardly, felt a strange radiance bloom in her beautiful eyes.

In the mental realm of the real Ning Yao, the red-skirted Luo Hongyan let out a triumphant, giggling laugh.

This laughter was filled with joy and delight, yet only the real Ning Yao could hear it.

"Swish!"

Pang Jian returned in an instant, steadied her, and set her on the ground. His sharp-featured face was filled with coldness and impatience as he said icily, "Next time you want to court death, don't call for me to save you."

Luo Hongyan's face was deathly pale, as if she had been badly frightened, and there was still blood beneath her elegant, delicate nose.

She wiped it away casually, then fixed her star-bright eyes on Pang Jian's face, gazing at him deeply without saying a word.

She ignored Su Yuntian, He Rong, and the two servants of the Qi Refining Realm entirely, as if they were nothing more than a group of corpses.

After a long while, seeing that Pang Jian was becoming uncomfortable under her gaze, Luo Hongyan finally said softly, "Aren't you living perfectly well? See, my intuition was right; you are completely unaffected by the Heavenly Spirit Pagoda."

Pang Jian remained silent; from beginning to end, he had not felt the slightest discomfort, nor had he experienced any sensation of his soul being tugged at by evil forces.