Granny Wu's hiding place was not connected to the Great Lin River God's divine kingdom domain at all. Li Ling and the Unusual Events Bureau searched everywhere without success. Only the following day, when vast amounts of water essence began gathering unnaturally, did they suddenly realize what was happening.
"It really is coming!"
Water essence spread endlessly, like dark clouds pressing overhead, the whole tower swept by wind before the mountain storm arrived.
This divine ability gathered its strength in the void. Incense and fire prayer power mingled with the water element of the natural world, forming a terrifying force of boundless immensity.
Probing it with his senses, he felt as though an ocean lay stored there. Its sheer scale alone inspired a suffocating terror.
Li Ling had been watching the divine kingdom domain closely and noticed the change immediately.
Even so, by the time he detected the abnormal aura within the Divine Domain, it was already the morning of the fifteenth day of the eighth month. An entire night had passed since he had hurried to the Ten-Mile Pavilion and discovered the Corpse-Raising Ground.
Heaven knew how long the enemy had been channeling it, or how much longer they needed to finish.
Li Ling informed the Unusual Events Bureau through dream visitation. Drawing on historical experience, the bureau's attendants of various ranks and its disciples serving as stewards determined that this was indeed a sign of the unreal merging with the real, as the water essence stored within the Divine Domain was being drawn into reality.
Judging by the current situation, they had little time left. The enemy could finish channeling it that very day at the earliest, or within the next two days at the latest. Things had become so dire that disaster could erupt at any moment.
The senior members of the Unusual Events Bureau gathered for an emergency discussion. "We must find the altar and kill the person performing the ritual as soon as possible!"
"What about the disaster victims? We need preparations on both fronts, so we can provide relief if disaster strikes..."
"We can't spare any attention for that. We can only trust the Royal City's prefect and the others. Besides, rather than worrying about that, we should worry about how we're going to find that person."
"Sigh, you're right..."
Listening to their discussion from the shadows, Li Ling shook his head and set out to search alone.
Even the Unusual Events Bureau was at a loss now. It seemed he would have to find a solution himself.
He just did not know whether his fragrance-sensing talent would be enough to follow the scent trail and track the enemy through the Divine Kingdom's Divine Domain.
"Grandfather River God, please save us..."
"In your boundless mercy, deliver us from suffering..."
"If we survive this year of calamity, we will surely fulfill our vows..."
After he had searched for a long time, those overlapping murmurs emerged again, leaving Li Ling agitated.
Although he had the protection of evil-repelling incense, he still could not remain within the divine kingdom domain indefinitely, absorbing prayer power and incense essence without limit. Nor could he wield the River God's authority to turn it all into his own strength.
The incense and fire prayer power grew ever purer, and the longing for protection became so intense that it interfered with Li Ling's every action. He had to retreat from the domain for a breather at regular intervals, or sooner or later it would erode him.
"With thoughts this pure and powerful, you'd have been saved long ago if you'd turned them into your own strength!"
Li Ling could not help wanting to curse, but he understood that this was a deep-rooted problem accumulated over many years. Nothing he said now would help.
He was a cultivator seeking immortality and the Dao, one who pursued transcendence. He could only rely on divine abilities.
And so he kept working until evening.
Li Ling found an excuse to go to bed early, then used soul projection again, trying to find another solution in the real world.
At night, he could engage in night wandering, giving him greater range and freedom of movement, but he still had no leads.
By midnight, his sense of foreboding had grown ever stronger. Li Ling could not resist shifting back to the Royal City to check the bureau's progress, only to find that they too were helpless.
During the day, Li Ling had already visited their people in dreams and told them that the Demonic Path practitioners were most likely hiding somewhere the divine kingdom domain had not yet reached.
Quite a few places around the Royal City fit that description. Searching them all thoroughly in such a short time was far from easy.
Li Ling had no solution either. He could not shift locations in reality, and within the Divine Kingdom's Divine Domain, he did not know how to direct the Divine Domain or gain greater control over the River God's authority.
These were secret methods of the Demonic Path, not something outsiders could ordinarily learn. They might even be bound to things such as the soul, making them unusable even if one knew how they worked.
Just then, another flash of inspiration struck Li Ling.
Perhaps he could make use of Lin Rouniang's dream spirit.
He could not establish a connection with those Demonic Path disciples or their mortal lackeys, but perhaps Lin Rouniang's dream spirit could.
Li Ling's understanding of dreams remained limited, and he had yet to piece many things together. But he had already tried every other avenue. There was no harm in treating a dead horse as though it could still be saved.
He immediately used soul projection to enter his own dream, took out the blood bead formed from Lin Rouniang's dream spirit, and shaped it into her likeness.
Within the dream, Lin Rouniang stood quietly in divine ceremonial robes and a crown, like an exquisite doll.
She was an exceptionally useful tool, with plenty of uses left before she dissipated.
Li Ling reached out to touch her body, actually linking their minds, and quietly searched through a sensing technique.
The void remained utterly still, seemingly without any response.
That was only natural. The idea born of Li Ling's sudden inspiration depended far too much on chance.
Such a connection might not exist at all. Even if it did, he might lack a strong enough anchor to sense it. It was also possible that those Demonic Path practitioners stayed awake all night, leaving no dreams to form.
After trying for a long time without success, Li Ling suddenly felt that he really had been overthinking things.
This method was not particularly feasible.
A dream spirit was only a dream spirit, after all. Using her to find Lin Rouniang herself might have some chance of success.
The problem was that she kept staying up. With her refusing to sleep even in the middle of the night, he could not reach her.
"Hm?"
Just then, Li Ling faintly sensed a change in the dream.
From the dream spirit before him came a pull like the attraction of a magnet, then suddenly it drew taut like a line with a fish on the hook.
"Is she dozing off, or entering a meditative trance?"
The connection was extremely weak. Yet that tiny thread was like a beacon in the darkness, bringing boundless hope.
Without hesitation, Li Ling used the Nightmare-Suppression Arts and dragged her over.
In an instant, Lin Rouniang truly appeared before him, dressed in divine ceremonial robes and a crown.
"This place is..."
Lin Rouniang was still somewhat dazed, but when realization struck, she jolted awake as though hit by lightning.
This was that mysterious expert's dream. How could this happen?
Lin Rouniang's face turned deathly pale, and beads of sweat even appeared on her forehead.
Their previous two encounters had already taught her that she was no match for him. Here, on his own ground, she had even less power to resist.
Without hesitation, Lin Rouniang drew a small knife from her sleeve, its blade crystalline as a gemstone, and stabbed toward her own body.
But Li Ling was focused. He acted first, seizing her with tremendous force.
Though he did not know what she intended, he instinctively felt she was trying to escape, sacrificing some of her mental strength to annihilate herself and deny him an anchor.
What Li Ling wanted was her dream spirit, to further strengthen his connection to her physical body. How could he let her succeed?
He had to kill this dream spirit himself!
Boom!
The tremendous force instantly crushed her into pulp. Another anchor was his!
Without pausing to examine it, he sent his far-reaching divine senses probing toward her.
In reality, inside a rural house, Lin Rouniang sprang up in alarm like a startled fawn.
"How could this happen!"
She had merely grown mentally exhausted and involuntarily dozed off. She had never expected such light rest to produce a dream.
What unsettled her even more was that this place lay within the Great Lin River God's Divine Domain. Her opponent could come looking for her at any moment.
The next instant, Lin Rouniang suddenly felt an inexplicable pang of dread. Her innate talent had taken effect.
Something had indeed entered!
There was still no outsider in the room, and neither her spiritual consciousness nor her eyes detected anything. But she knew her pursuer had arrived.
Lin Rouniang hastily summoned her magical artifact, the Wind-Thunder Wings. Without even bothering to open the door, she leaped straight out the window.
In the blink of an eye, she rose into the sky and fled into the distance with all her strength.
"She's that fast?"
Li Ling was a step behind, but he no longer had time to concern himself with her.
For he suddenly realized that this place lay beyond the Divine Domain's boundary in the Royal City's eastern outskirts. Farther east stretched vast tracts of desolate mountains, another area that had previously been difficult to investigate.
Searching every direction was impossible in the time available. But now, he could almost immediately conclude that the enemy's ritual altar lay in this direction!
It was not necessarily certain. He might even be walking into a lure. But judging by the enemy's mindset, circumstances, and numerous other factors, the likelihood was already considerable.
Li Ling immediately followed the traces of Lin Rouniang's earlier movements, retracing her route toward the mountains.
This time, Lin Rouniang had come out from within without taking precautions, so the scents of her and the several Demonic Path elites accompanying her were clearly discernible.
To ordinary people, these might still have been hidden clues impossible to discover. Even the Unusual Events Bureau might not have found them.
But for Li Ling's innate talent, they were enough.
With the trail formed by these scents, it was perfectly clear where the enemy had come from.
After more than half a double-hour, Li Ling had flown over sixty li. Sure enough, he discovered a mass of dark cloud gathering overhead, so dense it seemed about to drip water. Yet some mysterious force appeared to draw it down, confining it close to the ground.
Li Ling's spirits rose, and he could not help wanting to laugh aloud. "Found it!"
Some things could be disguised through schemes and trickery, but such an immense scale, and a self-contained divine kingdom domain, could not be faked.
Li Ling had spent almost every day immersed in them lately. He knew them all too well.
He hurried back at once to inform the Unusual Events Bureau.
Because a gap of several dozen li separated the divine kingdom domain from that area, Li Ling had to make the journey again. On his way back, however, he saw a streak of escape light racing along with two more close behind. Their powerful auras pressed across a hundred zhang, sweeping everything around them without restraint like a passing typhoon.
"Those are the Unusual Events Bureau's senior attendants. Three Foundation Establishment cultivators teleported straight there with a spell. One stayed to clean up, while the other two chased the old woman!"
Li Ling immediately deduced the situation from what he knew and followed without hesitation.
He was far slower than they were, but judging by their direction, they would sooner or later return to the area covered by the divine kingdom domain. Then he could use his divine senses to catch up directly.
Granny Wu seemed to have thought of this too. She suddenly stopped more than twenty li from the boundary and went no farther.
Her behavior seemed puzzling, but Li Ling dimly understood something.
She did not yet know that Lin Rouniang had escaped, or even that her own whereabouts had been exposed because of Lin Rouniang's mistake.
She still had to protect Lin Rouniang and avoid exposing her to the threat of the righteous cultivators.
Thus, she could go no farther.
"You wicked hag, there's no escape."
The two men pursuing Granny Wu were Daoists who appeared middle-aged. Both had the bearing of immortals, looking every inch like members of the righteous path.
Although they did not know why Granny Wu had suddenly stopped, they immediately seized the opportunity and attacked.
One unleashed a flying sword refined from five elements gang baleful energy, slashing from afar.
Unlike a magical artifact forged from refined gold, this flying sword was formed from his own dharma power. It darted through the air with extraordinary speed.
The other seemed skilled in lightning techniques. As his hands formed seals, white light appeared, forming a chain like a dragon or serpent. Amid thunderous roars, it lashed out like a long whip.
The attacks of Foundation Establishment cultivators far exceeded Li Ling's sensory range. Before he could even see anything clearly, a thunderous explosion erupted from the mountain ahead. The air shook, carrying the aftermath back with tremendous force.
Beyond the range of his senses, something seemed to have been swept away.
Five elements spiritual energy surged violently with the sound waves. Gang baleful energy struck, jolting his mind and giving his spirit body moving through the void a vividly tangible sensation. Yet his spiritual consciousness still reached far too little.
The combatants fought as they moved. Following behind, Li Ling could only stare in silent shock at the severed trees and blasted craters.
Flying swords, lightning spells, fire spells, cutting gang energy—the methods were much the same as those used at the Qi Refining stage. But bolstered by dharma power and Heaven-and-Earth Origin Energy, their scale was more than ten times greater. Craters several zhang wide and trenches over ten zhang long appeared with casual ease.
Granny Wu, meanwhile, employed techniques for controlling Poison Baleful Intent and gu worms. Poisonous mist spread along the way, plants withered, and the corpses of grotesquely shaped gu worms lay scattered across the battlefield, killed in all manner of ways.
Before long, traces of her blood even began appearing on the ground.
Li Ling gave a silent, rueful chuckle. It seemed that with the current reach of his spiritual consciousness, he could not even watch the entire battle. He could only infer scattered fragments from the traces left behind.
Even so, there was one thing he could say for certain.
"That old hag is finished!"
The bureau's people had also been nursing their anger. The moment they received his report, they struck ruthlessly, deploying three Foundation Establishment cultivators at once.
This was decisive strength that far surpassed their enemy's.
Seeing that he could not catch up at all, let alone help or pick up any spoils, Li Ling simply turned aside, intending to leave them to it.
But just then, a malice so intense it made his very soul tremble spread in every direction. In an instant, it enveloped an area several hundred zhang across.
Li Ling suddenly felt that the world around him had changed.
The Great Lin River God's Divine Domain enveloped the battlefield, and the god's presence descended, vast and majestic.