For each Qin Sect cultivator, searching the entire hundred-li stretch of river was not their task; all they had to cover was their own section, two or three li wide and some sixty li long.
The hundred-li stretch had been divided into dozens of equal sections like this, each person responsible for their own. Only after the Water Spirit Pearl's movements had been confirmed were they allowed to leave their original positions to pursue it. The advantage was that no suspicious spot would be overlooked-a true carpet search.
While searching carefully, she needed to watch for possible interference from the Water Race, as well as the one or two Yue Sect cultivators she would inevitably encounter.
There was an element of luck to this, and each cultivator's chances were slim. It all depended on which lucky soul among the dozens of sections would hit the jackpot. Even so, everyone's efforts mattered. Even if they could not find the Water Spirit Pearl, they could at least tie down the Yue Sect cultivators in their own areas.
Yin Qingsi slowly let herself sink to the bottom. Because of the Northwest's distinctive windblown-sand environment, the bed of the Flowing Sand River was covered in thick sediment. If something fell in here, finding it really would be no different from fishing a needle out of the sea.
But cultivators had their own methods. They could hardly rake through it inch by inch with a little fine-toothed comb.
Yin Qingsi cast a Mystic Water Wave Technique, sending it spreading outward from her within a radius of ten zhang. Like a pebble dropped into water, the mystic water waves rippled in every direction, gently stirring the riverbed without raising sediment, while effectively detecting the response of any water-aspect spiritual object buried beneath it.
This was a