Meeting Li Shaojun
Having witnessed the Venerable One's physical form, one will not be horrified by Bai's enormous body.
Zhang Xuezhou is quite familiar with demons, and he even possesses Demon Power himself.
Having come from humble beginnings, his cultivation was extremely chaotic and mixed, but Zhang Xuezhou undoubtedly had a wide range of knowledge and was able to handle related matters with relative composure.
"Removing the long nail will grant me the second layer of power, the third layer of power to destroy the foundation of the Great Han Dynasty, and the fourth layer of power to find a suitable body for you, thus achieving the Sea Dragon form!"
While giving Zhang Xuezhou a sweet treat, they also made demands.
As long as Zhang Xuezhou can do it, the other party will give Zhang Xuezhou benefits.
"If one day you experience the benefits of the waters, you will come back to me!"
Bai spoke in a low voice.
Bai finally managed to get past a cultivator, only to find that the other party was not only weak in cultivation but also unable to shake the Soul-Suppressing Nail piercing through his forehead. Bai felt utterly hopeless.
He brought the terrible situation to a close.
The aura of the underworld surged like waves, enveloping Zhang Xuezhou before drifting away.
"It's so difficult to find a new world and achieve supreme status. Unless Mother Queen can kill that Hongjun, the malevolent forces I've encountered will all subside and be replaced by supreme favor. Perhaps then I'll be able to transcend the mortal realm and achieve true immortality. I must persevere, lest Mother Queen abandon me and choose another royal family to come."
After muttering to himself, he shook his head vigorously, but a dizzy feeling washed over him.
Without additional factors, he would easily fall into a deep sleep in such an environment, thus wasting away the passage of time and eventually slowly fading away.
This was an environment that Bai couldn't resist or escape, and he eventually entered a state of deep sleep with great resentment.
"I'll stop seeing them off halfway!"
On the other side was Zhang Xuezhou, who seemed to be riding on clouds.
His body floated and drifted, constantly shuttling through the waters of the Yellow Springs, but this easy passage did not last long.
Just moments later, his body plunged into the waves of the Yellow Springs.
If it weren't for the influence of that magic-controlling ring, Zhang Xuezhou felt that even his bones would have floated away.
"The water area... yes, I'm in better shape in the water area!"
As his mind raced, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but feel that his cultivation techniques and location selection were indeed quite good.
In this region of the Yellow Springs, he did indeed promote the cultivation of martial arts.
But Zhang Xuezhou also sensed something was amiss.
This is where the fortune of the Great Han Dynasty began, and the incantation recited by the new emperor did indeed have an effect, but Zhang Xuezhou only found the Yellow Springs Water and the suppressed White when he went inside.
This was not the situation Zhang Xuezhou had envisioned. Normally, he should have touched the initial fortune of the Great Han Dynasty, then cultivated the same fortune-telling techniques as the new emperor, and concealed his existence as much as possible.
"Prince Liang, Li Shaojun, Hongku, and I—we all walked the same path, but I shouldn't be like this!"
Zhang Xuezhou practiced the art of manipulation and also benefited from Bai's favor, but Zhang Xuezhou felt he shouldn't be like Liang Wang and the others.
"His Majesty clearly triggered the omens through ancestral worship; I shouldn't have taken this path!"
Having once again stepped out of the Yellow Springs and entered the cave where Hongku had previously sighed and lamented, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but repeatedly ponder the problems that existed therein.
He looked at the rough topographical map drawn by Hongku again and again, and carefully considered every area he had visited.
"Did you also find Bai by walking in the dark?"
Zhang Xuezhou thought for a long time before realizing the similarities and differences between them in terms of time.
"The Yellow Springs belong to the extreme of Yin and do not manifest in the mortal realm. If the Yellow Springs are hidden and invisible during the day, this area should be difficult to enter normally. In other words, the strange omen that gave His Majesty was not Bai!"
"Could Feng Xize be hiding something else?"
"The Yellow Springs water is about to disappear!"
Zhang Xuezhou kept comparing his work with the topographical map drawn by Hongku. Only when the flow of the Yellow Springs water in this area gradually decreased did he quickly cast the water-avoiding spell and step into the Yellow Springs water.
The higher one goes, the thinner the water of the underworld becomes, making it difficult for Zhang Xuezhou to pass through.
In the end, he had no choice but to rely on the Dust-Avoiding Technique and the feathers of the Peacock Great Wisdom King to keep climbing upwards.
By the time Zhang Xuezhou emerged from the ground, the sunlight was already quite dazzling.
Night passed, and daylight arrived.
The difference between where he entered and where he exited was nearly 100 meters.
Zhang Xuezhou glanced at the town monument in the distance, then looked at the direction he had pointed when he released the feng shui site-finding technique.
"Heaven and earth are in harmony, and I alone yearn for them. Therefore, I gather at the Purple Altar, seeking the path to enlightenment, respectfully performing the sacrificial rites. Amidst the bustling revelry and embroidered decorations, I receive the supreme deity. A thousand children dance in a magnificent display, celebrating the unity and harmony of the universe..."
Stepping once more into the area where the new emperor was reciting his prayers, and lingering where the earth's energy was rising, Zhang Xuezhou continued reciting the sacrificial inscription.
"Should we light some incense and offer prayers?"
After reciting the incantations for a long time without success, he inevitably repeated other actions he had taken during the ancestral worship ceremonies of the new emperor.
For example, burning incense.
As a sacrificial entourage, Zhang Xuezhou and his team's convoy would never lack incense, no matter what else they might lack.
He simply searched around on the ground and found a few unburnt incense sticks that had been discarded.
After the incense was relit, Zhang Xuezhou held the incense sticks and repeated the ancestral rites recited by the new emperor.
Thinking about the topographical map of Huangquanshui, Zhang Xuezhou repeatedly compared it with the map and also walked around Fengxize.
"Li Shaojun?"
"Dongfang Shuo?"
Zhang Xuezhou continued searching in Feng Xize, but found nothing at Feng Xize's hiding place. Instead, he unexpectedly spotted Li Shaojun, who had dug a large pit.
Watching Li Shaojun digging haphazardly in the pit, Zhang Xuezhou glanced at him for a few seconds before greeting him, at which point Li Shaojun looked up again.
"How did you get here?" Li Shaojun asked incredulously. "Weren't you an official in Chang'an City?"
"I accompanied His Majesty to Fengxize to pay homage to our ancestors. What are you doing here?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.
"I'm digging for treasure!" Li Shaojun said sullenly.
"Is there treasure underground?" Zhang Xuezhou asked curiously.
"Yes, but it's very slippery, it seems to be constantly moving around underground, I haven't found it yet!"
"What treasure?"
"It should be a ginseng baby!"
Having fulfilled his desire to enter the Southern Heavenly Gate at Mount Tai, Li Shaojun sought out a new region to explore.
Most people would find Li Shaojun's behavior difficult to understand, but Zhang Xuezhou knew very well that this guy had some real skills, and perhaps he had also genuinely sensed something, just like him.
"I heard that your technique, which lies between life and death, allows you to die ninety-nine times?" Zhang Xuezhou said casually.
"Where... where did you hear that from?"
Li Shaojun was about to yell and refute, but Zhang Xuezhou's guess was too accurate.
This was a number of people, not many, not few, who knew his background accurately.
This is not something that ordinary people could know. Li Shaojun was certain that he kept his mouth shut. If the answer did not come from him, and it was not something Zhang Xuezhou guessed, then there was only one source for the other party's answer.
"You saw him?"
Li Shaojun looked at Zhang Xuezhou, who was still holding several nearly burned incense sticks in his hand, and then at the empty wilderness around Feng Xize. He couldn't figure out how Zhang Xuezhou had gotten to that area.