A patch of reeds had been flattened. He Yiyang lay stiffly in the mud, stripped completely bare, his storage pouch nowhere to be found. He looked like a skinned dead fish, a truly miserable sight.
"Dead?!"
He Sheng's heart sank sharply.
"After finally tracking down a lead, it broke off just like that!"
Suppressing the fury in his heart, He Sheng spread out his divine sense and searched for the faintest traces.
Before long, He Sheng discovered a female corpse lying facedown more than ten zhang away. Other than that, there were no further clues.
"If that female corpse was He Yiyang's favored concubine, then among the three who fled, only He Yiyang's brother-in-law, Ji Yunlai, is unaccounted for.
Could it be..."
He Sheng's gaze fell upon He Yiyang's corpse again, and he stepped forward to inspect it.
The body had not yet gone cold. No obvious livor mortis had appeared, and the joints had yet to stiffen.
All signs indicated that He Yiyang had not been dead for long. Even if he was an immortal cultivator and his corpse reacted differently from a mortal's, He Sheng estimated that he had been dead for no more than half a day.
"More importantly, for an immortal cultivator who died so recently, his remnant soul should not have fully dispersed yet..."
The Soul Imprint Art's descriptions of souls surfaced in He Sheng's mind, followed by the soul-searching technique he had comprehended earlier.
"That's right!
"He Yiyang's remnant soul has not dispersed. If I use the soul-searching technique on him, I should be able to obtain one or two clues."
He Sheng immediately formed a hand seal with his left hand and grabbed He Yiyang's skull with his right clawed hand, chanting under his breath.
Buzz...
The soul-searching technique roared into motion. A tyrannical strand of divine sense, like a sharp awl, viciously pierced into He Yiyang's not-yet-dispersed sea of consciousness.
Aah!
He Yiyang's remnant soul instantly let out a shrill scream. This was originally one of the drawbacks of the soul-searching technique: one could suffer backlash from the target's soul.
But He Sheng was already a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivator. His divine sense far surpassed He Yiyang's, and before the remnant soul's shriek could return to He Sheng's sea of consciousness, it was erased by his powerful divine sense.
Immediately afterward,
Scenes appeared within He Sheng's sea of consciousness. Countless shattered fragments of memory were forcibly extracted and pieced together.
A moment later,
He Sheng abruptly opened his eyes. A red gleam flashed through them and vanished as he muttered,
"So that was it!"
Through the soul search, the truth was laid bare.
Two hours earlier, He Yiyang had led his brother-in-law Ji Yunlai and his most beloved concubine all the way into this reed marsh.
Though He Yiyang was a late Qi Refinement cultivator, he had spent his years frequenting the flower and willow lanes, and his cultivation had been forcibly piled up with pills. Naturally, his spiritual power was exceedingly unstable.
After flying only a few hundred li on a flying artifact, his spiritual power had already run dry, and he desperately needed to meditate and recover.
Trusting his brother-in-law Ji Yunlai, He Yiyang had him stand guard nearby before sitting cross-legged and entering meditation to regulate his breathing.
Yet what He Yiyang never could have imagined was that Ji Yunlai would brazenly strike while he was meditating. With a cone-shaped dharma artifact, he directly blasted into He Yiyang's dantian and churned his dantian's spiritual sea into a complete mess.
Until his death, He Yiyang could not understand why the brother-in-law he had always trusted would suddenly attack him. As a result, his remnant soul was steeped in boundless resentment.
"With the resentment inside He Yiyang, his remnant soul will likely turn into a vicious ghost."
As that thought flashed through his mind, He Sheng felt somewhat troubled.
"Ji Yunlai is only at the fourth layer of Qi Refinement, so he should not have gone far. But this reed marsh extends in all directions. Even if he has only fled several dozen li, it will still be difficult to find his whereabouts.
"Unless..."
A flash of inspiration struck He Sheng. The third seal art of the Soul Imprint Art emerged in his mind—the Vengeful Soul Imprint!
This was a soul imprint that could only be cultivated after the Soul Imprint Art had reached great mastery.
Using resentment as a tether, this soul imprint could trace back a lingering thread of karmic connection.
"He Yiyang is now filled with deep resentment. If I refine his remnant soul's resentment into a Vengeful Soul Imprint, I may be able to find Ji Yunlai."
It was a fine idea, but when He Sheng glanced at the water clock, his available universal cultivation time had already dropped to zero.
However, after a turn of thought, He Sheng came up with an idea.
"Perhaps I can roll back part of the Clear Billows Water Origin Art?
"After all, the Silver Sand River region is merely a beginner's village. Brother Piao was practically a major boss when he was at Foundation Establishment Middle Stage. As long as that sword-bearing youth does not come after me, there is simply nothing threatening within several thousand li.
"The deterrent force of Foundation Establishment Late Stage should not differ much from Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, right?"
The moment He Sheng thought of it, he acted. He immediately rolled back the Clear Billows Water Origin Art, quickly reverting it to the state it had been in when he had first entered Foundation Establishment Late Stage.
[Clear Billows Water Origin Art, Sixth Level (Beginner): 1/100] (Total cultivation time: eleven years, eight months, seven days)
The Clear Billows Water Origin Art's total cultivation time had decreased by thirty months. At a Time Rate of 2, his universal cultivation time had indeed increased by sixty months.
[Currently available total cultivation time: five years]
"Five years of cultivation time should be enough to cultivate the Vengeful Soul Imprint, right?"
He Sheng was just about to further raise the Soul Imprint Art when, looking at the water droplet displaying the Clear Billows Water Origin Art's information, a thought suddenly arose in his heart.
"After comprehending the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm, not only did my efficiency in breathing and refining qi increase enormously, but the time needed to circulate my cultivation through a cycle also fell greatly.
"In that case, if I roll the Clear Billows Water Origin Art back to when I had just entered Foundation Establishment Early Stage, then cultivate it again, could I squeeze out even more time?"
The more He Sheng considered it, the more feasible it seemed.
As for why he would roll it back only to Foundation Establishment Early Stage, it was because the Clear Ripple Water Control Art was an exclusive high-level spell that could only be cultivated after the Clear Billows Water Origin Art had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm.
And the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm had only been comprehended through cultivating the Clear Ripple Water Control Art.
He Sheng felt that if he directly rolled back to the Qi Refinement Realm, the karmic logic of the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm would no longer hold together.
If he had been free, He Sheng would not have minded conducting one or two experiments to thoroughly understand the operating logic of the Time-Reversing Water Clock.
But he was urgently pursuing Ji Yunlai, so He Sheng could only suppress the thought.
"First, I'll roll the Clear Billows Water Origin Art back to when I had just entered Foundation Establishment Early Stage. Then I'll see what happens."
He Sheng focused his consciousness on the minus sign beside the Clear Billows Water Origin Art. Its cultivation realm rapidly fell, while his aura and spiritual power were swiftly drained away like water being pumped from a pond.
"Done!"
[Clear Billows Water Origin Art, Fourth Level (Beginner): 1/100] (Total cultivation time: five years, two months, seven days)
The Clear Billows Water Origin Art's total cultivation time had decreased by a full nine years. It was still returned at double the amount, granting him an additional eighteen years of universal cultivation time!
[Currently available total cultivation time: twenty-three years]
"Let's see whether this idea can be verified."
He Sheng focused his consciousness on the plus sign beside the Clear Billows Water Origin Art.
Whoosh!
His cultivation immediately soared as though he had boarded a rocket.
A moment later,
He Sheng's cultivation returned to Foundation Establishment Late Stage in one sweep, then surged all the way to Foundation Establishment Great Perfection!
[Clear Billows Water Origin Art, Sixth Level (Perfected): 500/500] (Total cultivation time: twelve years, eight months, seven days)
"It worked!"
This recultivation had clearly been calculated according to cultivation enhanced by the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm. From Foundation Establishment Early Stage to Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, the total cultivation time had increased by ninety months—seven and a half years.
Calculated at a Time Rate of 2, his universal cultivation time had decreased by fifteen years, leaving him with eight years.
[Currently available total cultivation time: eight years]
"Moreover, this recultivation did not merely squeeze out more cultivation time. Starting from Foundation Establishment Early Stage, I cultivated with the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm's enhancement. My spiritual power is now even purer and more robust than before!"
He Sheng reckoned that if the purity coefficient of his spiritual power had been 1.5 before, then even if it had not reached 2 now, it should be around 1.8.
Based on the nine thousand six hundred drops of spiritual power at Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, his quantified total spiritual power had reached 17,280—twenty percent higher than before!
"The Time-Reversing Water Clock truly has such marvelous uses. Then from this day onward, every day can be made new; if one makes it new, one must make it new again."
Looking at the eight years of universal cultivation time he had squeezed out, He Sheng's face was full of satisfaction. Then he focused his consciousness on the plus sign beside the Soul Imprint Art.
[Soul Imprint Art (Proficient): 26/300] (Total cultivation time: seven months, four days)
Time to charge ahead!
Before you continue