Another half year passed. By then, an entire year had gone by since the Bodhi Ancient Tree's emergence.
Undercurrents surged through the Central Plains during this time. The Soul Palace, which stood on equal footing with the Pill Tower in the public eye, had mobilized in full. Its subordinate faction, the Netherworld Hall, was particularly active. Every day, people saw experts from the Soul Palace or the Netherworld Hall streaking across the sky, seemingly searching for someone or something.
The Flower Sect, one of the Two Sects, also kept sending people out to discreetly inquire about something throughout the Central Plains.
Even the Ancient Void Dragon Clan, which had not appeared for many years, had sent experts into the world to search, make inquiries, and gather information.
For a time, the movements of these superpowers left countless people baffled. Many speculated that some treasure had appeared, prompting most of the factions across the Central Plains to begin taking action, probing both openly and in secret-even though they did not know what they were investigating.
Yet the cause of this strange tide was not some treasure, as the people of the Central Plains imagined, but a person: Hun Changqing, who had disappeared in the Vast Desolate Ancient Region a year earlier.
After Hun Changqing had been abducted and brought back to the Gu Clan, everything on him had been stripped away. Had he not had a flash of inspiration at the last moment and stored his two most precious possessions within the Supreme Yin Origin, even that priceless treasure, the Origin Emperor Qi, would likely have become a wedding gown sewn for Gu Yuan to wear.
Once his remaining Storage Rings were confiscated, all his Jade Slips were sealed as well, cutting him off from the outside world completely. Only then