“Nothing.”

Nie Kong felt around carefully for a moment, finding absolutely nothing, and couldn't help but shake his head and smile. They always said that joy brightens the spirit, yet encountering such happy news had made him overly suspicious.

Several tens of minutes later, that premonition of unease flared up again. Nie Kong expanded his spiritual sense to its absolute limit, yet still discovered nothing.

Once, it might have been insignificant, but twice? That was getting abnormal.

A thread of alarm immediately tightened in Nie Kong’s heart.

Seeing this, Qing Yue began to investigate as well. After a long moment, she muttered with some suspicion, “There really doesn’t seem to be anything unusual in this stretch of sea. Youhun, what do you think?”

“Caw!”

The only reply was the piercing, long cry of the Soul Condor King.

“Brother, is there danger?” Tai Yan asked nervously. She had a natural fear of high altitudes, and if danger struck while they were up here, she doubted she could be of much help, which made her fret.

“Don't worry.”

Nie Kong soothed her, his mind instantly settling. His spiritual sense gradually wove itself into the fabric of heaven and earth. Having advanced his cultivation to the Dong Ling Realm, Nie Kong’s comprehension of the Heavenly Spirit was deeper, allowing him to easily enter that state of ‘fusing with heaven and earth’ now.

He instructed the Soul Condor King to slow its ascent slightly. Nie Kong’s spiritual sense swept rapidly across the void, instantly covering the sea area spanning several thousand meters.

Beneath the faintly undulating surface, various fish swam either leisurely or in fierce combat. Hmm, a hundred meters below, behind us, there’s also a sea snake as thick as a water bucket and dozens of meters long, moving through the water with astonishing speed…

“A sea snake?”

Nie Kong’s spiritual sense retracted the moment it passed over the giant serpent, a thread of doubt arising in his heart. It wasn't the snake’s speed, nor did the word ‘snake’ remind him of the Serpent Spirit Clan. It was the sudden realization that the life force contained within that colossal serpent was exceedingly peculiar.

“That’s not a snake—it’s a person!”

An instant later, Nie Kong’s heart gave a violent jump.

Though both were life forces, the essence within a snake and that within a human had subtle, crucial differences. Differences that, perhaps, only someone like Nie Kong, capable of absorbing life essence, could keenly discern... Since the snake was not a snake, the colossal serpent must be an illusion conjured by the heart-form of a Serpent Spirit Clan member!

He must have been followed by the Serpent Spirit Clan the moment he left Dragon Island!

Those tenacious fiends!

Nie Kong sneered internally but made no move to alert the giant snake below. His speed in the water could match the Soul Condor King’s pace in the air; this was no ordinary Serpent Spirit Clan member. If even someone of this caliber had been dispatched, the force sent by the Serpent Spirit Clan certainly wasn't limited to just one!

In that case, I’ll play along with you lot!

With a shift of intent, Nie Kong directed the Soul Condor King to continue flying at high speed. A few minutes later, the uncomfortable sensation Nie Kong had felt returned for the third time: the giant snake had slightly lifted its head and fixed Nie Kong with a look, two gloomy, verdant eyes projecting stares of tangible cold malice.

Time slipped quietly away…

In the blink of an eye, a day and a night had passed. What surprised Nie Kong was that, aside from the sea snake trailing behind them, no other Serpent Spirit Clan members had appeared. This made Nie Kong slightly puzzled—perhaps his initial judgment was wrong, and the Serpent Spirit Clan only intended to map his movements for now, with no immediate plans to strike?

He dissolved his spiritual sense into the world again, focusing it intensely on the giant snake beneath the waves.

Over the span of more than thirty hours, that Serpent Spirit Clan member, much like the Soul Condor King, had shown no signs of stopping. However, he still couldn't compare to a peak Ninth Grade spirit beast like the Soul Condor King; the tracker had consumed spiritual medicine over thirty times that Nie Kong noticed, not counting those he missed.

The Serpent Spirit tracker remained unaware that his pursuit had long been detected by Nie Kong, continuing to chase relentlessly.

Nie Kong felt rather smug about this. After entering that mystical realm of ‘fusing with heaven and earth,’ his spiritual sense had completely merged with the life force of the world. Even when investigating, he betrayed no sign whatsoever. Unless one possessed the Spiritual God level, discovering his actions would be impossible.

“We’re nearing the shore!”

Qing Yue clapped her little hands excitedly. After so long spent only seeing blue sky, blue sea, or black night, the little one was thoroughly tired of it. Tai Yan also bravely poked half her small head out from Nie Kong’s collar, but after just one quick glance, she scurried back in alarm.

The first light of dawn was just breaking, and the distant beach was faintly visible.

“Hmm?”

Faintly, Nie Kong sensed four exceptionally massive life forces beneath the distant beach. However, that area showed no discernible ripple of aura—which was precisely why Qing Yue and the Soul Condor King noticed nothing. Based on the sheer size of the life forces, the four figures hidden beneath the sand must be Heavenly Spirit experts!

So, they were all waiting here!

Nie Kong’s pupils constricted, a slight chill running through his heart.

The Serpent Spirit Clan had truly calculated viciously. Anyone flying at high altitude for so long would instinctively want to descend and rest upon seeing land, and that moment would be when their guard was lowest. Four Heavenly Spirit experts, hidden and then striking suddenly—not just one Soul Condor King, but even two, would be brutally slain on the spot.

Nie Kong calculated that the Serpent Spirit Clan probably blamed the death of She Ming on the Soul Condor King. This time, four Heavenly Spirit experts joining forces to ambush and eliminate a peak Ninth Grade spirit beast would be effortless. Once the Soul Condor King was dead, Nie Kong, a mere Wood Spirit Master, would be vanquishable in an instant.

It was a pity they had miscalculated so thoroughly.

Firstly, Nie Kong’s greatest reliance was not the Soul Condor King, but Tai Yan, alongside his own formidable physique. Secondly, his sensory abilities after breaking through to the first stage of the Dong Ling Realm far surpassed what they were during the Dan Ling Ninth Grade. They could conceal their aura fluctuations, but they couldn't conceal life essence.

As long as there was life force, it could not escape Nie Kong’s perception after his spiritual sense ‘fused with heaven and earth.’

“Qing Yue, Youhun, we have work to do…”

Nie Kong drew a breath, transmitting streams of intent separately to Qing Yue’s Phantom Heart Orchid and the Soul Condor King. Following Nie Kong’s instructions, they displayed no outward abnormality. The distance of several thousand meters vanished in a flash, and in the span of a breath, the Soul Condor King carried Nie Kong above the beach.

“We’ve finally arrived! Youhun, let’s go down and rest.”

Nie Kong laughed heartily, his clear voice echoing across the vast expanse of heaven and earth. Sure enough, the moment his words fell, the four massive life forces began to stir, seeming to move quietly beneath the sands, adjusting their positions according to where the Soul Condor King was descending.

“Caw!”

The Soul Condor King folded its wings sharply and plunged downward with a cry, its sharp shriek laced with unusual excitement. In the blink of an eye, the distance to the ground shrank from two or three thousand meters to one thousand, then hundreds of meters, then a hundred… eighty meters, seventy meters… fifty meters, forty meters…

…

…RO