Suspicions About the Star-Fixing Technique

West, East, South!

After participating in the attack on Chang'an City, Hongku stayed in the Han Dynasty for three months.

For the first time, he felt he had been away from home for far too long.

He has been away from the Sacred Land for nearly half a year since the resolution was passed.

In those six months, he only had a few days of truly productive work; the rest of the time he was constantly on the go.

This made Hongku extremely eager for magical Law Treasure that could aid in his movement, to some extent even surpassing his pursuit of cultivation level, lifespan, and other such things.

He was delighted when he agreed to the deal with Zhang Xuezhou.

But Hongku felt that he had been stuck in waiting for too long, and each day felt like an eternity.

He repeatedly tried to calculate Zhang Xuezhou's location, but the results were always unsatisfactory.

Zhang Xuezhou was either in a heavily guarded area, or in the south or the north, and today he even traveled thousands of miles away.

This distance made Hongku question his existence. For the first time, he wondered if his Star-Fixing Technique had gone wrong, or if Zhang Xuezhou's practice of the Three Fixed Techniques of the Physiognomy School had caused his technique to fail.

"Young Master Rong, you don't seem to be in a hurry?"

Hongku stayed overnight at Rong Tianding's house.

The only relatively quiet house in this area was the Rong Household's; at least the Rong Household didn't have those old women and men crying their eyes out.

Hongku felt disgusted by the long-awaited reunion of these ordinary people; he disliked such scenes.

These people, who had endured many years, were able to reunite, but his family was destroyed and he never had the chance to be together again.

Hongku felt his heart was as cold as a butcher's knife; it was only because Zhang Xuezhou and Wu Chao were still considered half students that he maintained a relatively mild level of interaction with them.

But the long wait made Hongku to hide his anxiety.

He glanced at Rong Tianding, who was silently and diligently cultivating in the study, and urged Rong Tianding on again.

"My uncle deduced that my cousin is at Shanglin Garden, so he must be there on official business. Once he finishes his business, he will definitely return to Chang'an City!"

Although Hongku was a dangerous element, Rong Tianding did not panic. He followed Zhang Xuezhou in addressing him, and Hongku did not deny Rong Tianding's address.

It's a simple form of address, but Rong Tianding can tell from it that Hongku is currently anxious but can only endure it, and won't overturn the table and leave.

He stood up and replied to Hongku with utmost politeness.

As long as his family could afford it, he made sure Hongku ate, drank, and lived well, trying his best to maintain a balance between them and also trying to Hongku to prevent him from becoming anxious.

"He somehow went south, and it seems he ended up in Jiangdu," Hongku said in a deep voice.

"Is that so?" Rong Tianding asked in surprise.

"Don't try to fool me," Hongku said. "Has your cousin mastered the Technique Within the Clouds?"

If one could fly thousands of miles in a single night, Hongku could only think of Venerable Lei's Technique Within the Clouds, which was far beyond the distance that the Black and White Twin Horses Spirit Artifact could travel.

The thought that Zhang Xuezhou could only fly a hundred meters high and glide far with difficulty filled him with intense heartache.

Even though he already thought highly of Zhang Xuezhou, Hongku never imagined that Zhang Xuezhou possessed such a leaping ability.

If Zhang Xuezhou possessed such strategic acumen, it would be perfectly logical for the other party not to need the Black and White Twin Horses.

What he got in return for emptying his savings were nothing more than items discarded by Zhang Xuezhou.

This feeling of one's own upper limit being compared to others' lower limits made Hongku very unhappy. He asked Rong Tianding in a bad mood, hoping to get a definite answer from Rong Tianding.

"Jiangdu... I can't see why my cousin would go to Jiangdu," Rong Tianding frowned. "If my cousin can go to Jiangdu, which is thousands of miles away, it wouldn't be difficult for him to return to Chang'an City to see you. After all, it wouldn't take much time for you to exchange things with him!"

"Are you doubting that my calculations are wrong?" Hongku asked, frowning.

"I dare not," Rong Tianding shook his head repeatedly, "I only know that my cousin has only been awake from his illness for two days, and it seems unbelievable that I would send him to travel thousands of miles away!"

Rong Tianding spoke at length, seemingly responding to Hongku, but he never directly answered Hongku's question about Zhang Xuezhou's Technique Within the Clouds.

Fortune tellers are indeed an extremely troublesome group. With just a brief calculation, Hongku had almost guessed Zhang Xuezhou's trump card.

If Hongku Xuezhou's ability to fly thousands of miles in a single night hadn't been equally astonishing to Hongku, leading him to doubt his own skills rather than admit that Zhang Xuezhou possessed such long-distance flying ability, his judgment wouldn't have wavered.

"Indeed unbelievable," Hongku frowned. "Lei Ming's ' Technique Within the Clouds ' is all talk and no action, and it's still only passed down through a single lineage. No one has been able to refine it to Lei Ming's level!"

Hongku pondered for a long time, and finally concluded that the problem lay with his own Technique Method.

Zhang Xuezhou held a low-ranking official position in the imperial court and had not yet accumulated the resources for cultivation through corruption, so it was impossible for him to refine the "Technique Within the Clouds" to a high level.

Moreover, Hongku knew very well that Zhang Xuezhou only had half of the "Technique Within the Clouds," which could only refine wings but not the body, and therefore could not possibly reach the level of Venerable Lei.

In other words, it was impossible for Zhang Xuezhou to fly thousands of miles in one night.

The results and facts prove that the Star-Fixing Technique did indeed have problems.

Hongku pondered for a while, and then began to calculate the locations of the Venerables such as White Bone, Black Earth, and Weaving Emperor.

"They're going back to the Sacred Land!"

He paced back and forth in Rong Tianding's room, calculating the number of people in the Sacred Land, feeling as if the waiting time was an eternity.

Even with the wounded, many people in the Sacred Land had already crossed the border of the Great Han Dynasty and were approaching the Sacred Land again.

If possible, Hongku hoped to return to the Sacred Land within a similar timeframe to avoid any unnecessary trouble.

"Uncle-Master, my mom made a pork stew today, would you like a bowl?"

It wasn't until Rong Tianding reminded him that Hongku stopped calculating with the Star-Fixing Technique.

He glanced at the marbled pork, then frowned at the pale yellow vegetable stalks.

The greasy smell hit him, Hongku quickly waved his hand.

"Cured pork is only suitable for some martial artists who practice rudimentary Qi and Blood techniques. If sorcerers eat it for a long time, they will easily become fat. Our hands and feet are already clumsy, so eating this kind of food is a way to get ourselves killed. We will easily lose our lives when we encounter an opponent," Hongku said with a frown.

"Would you like something lighter, Uncle-Master?" Rong Tianding asked politely.

Normally speaking, what Hongku said is correct.

Rong Tianding was not suited to eating these "pig-killing dishes" for a long time, but he couldn't resist the Rong Tianding when he was drained of blood in the Immortal Court, he replenished his gluttonous power, making his appetite a hundred times stronger than that of an ordinary person.

Over the years, he has only Grain Avoidance Instruction to barely suppress his urge to overeat by practicing the fasting technique.

The greasy food did not make him clumsy; on the contrary, the power within Rong Tianding's body grew stronger due to the pull of the Taotie Demon Power.

If his body and bones were not unable to support his strength, a single punch from him would have been enough to kill a martial artist below the Divine Ability Realm.

Rong Tianding's physical weakness is not insurmountable. For example, when using the Corpse Technique of the Corpse School on himself, he can achieve muscle stiffness and bone heaviness. However, in this state, it is difficult for him to hit his opponent, making him less suitable for combat.

Seeing that Hongku did not need meat or vegetables, but only took a Grain Avoidance Pill, Rong Tianding did not try to persuade him, but silently finished the food that was served to him.

For a moment, the two remained silent until a whooshing sound of wind piercing the air fell to the ground, at which point they both stood up and peered out.

In the Rong Household courtyard, Zhang Xuezhou stepped off a boat and reached out to grab it; the boat was now only two inches long.

"I knew this traitor would sell me a useless treasure, this traitor..."

Hongku resentment.

But he really needs the Black and White Duo, even if they are the ones Zhang Xuezhou rejected.

This made Hongku curse inwardly while forcing a smile, hoping to complete this anxiously awaited transaction as soon as possible.