"There seem to be four Spirit Gods over there." Nie Kong's face looked strange; it was a case of speaking of the devil. Without needing to think, they must be the spirit god avatars descended from the Grand Venerable Spirit Realm.

"Ah?"

Yu Longyue started in surprise. "How could they be here?"

Although she herself hadn't sensed anything, she didn't doubt Nie Kong’s words in the slightest; with his Chaos Divine Power, Nie Kong's sensing abilities far surpassed hers.

Before Nie Kong could reply, Yu Longyue suddenly realized, muttering to herself, "Right, this area of the Immortal Qin Sea is the farthest from the 'Grand Illusion Heavenly Mansion'..."

"They've spotted us!"

Nie Kong's eyes flickered. The four massive auras in the distance suddenly accelerated toward them, clearly having sensed the presence of Tai Yan and Yu Longyue. As for himself, Nie Kong was confident he hadn't been exposed; upon detecting their presence, Nie Kong had already retracted his aura.

Under these circumstances, let alone mere spirit god avatars, even if their true bodies had arrived, they wouldn't be able to perceive Nie Kong's existence. Of course, if the ones arriving were figures like the Night God Venerable or the Sea Dragon God Venerable from the Grand Venerable Spirit Realm, Nie Kong wouldn't possess such great confidence.

"Tai Yan, Aunt Yue, be careful."

Two threads of sound were sent into the ears of Tai Yan and Yu Longyue, and Nie Kong instantly dissolved into the void, vanishing without a trace.

Yu Longyue and Tai Yan exchanged a glance, instantly understanding Nie Kong's intention. A sly smile flickered in Yu Longyue’s eyes. She gave Tai Yan a look, and the two suddenly floated away from the island, rushing into the Immortal Qin Sea in a flurry, which easily gave the impression of having something to hide.

Dozens of li away, four figures streaked through the sky thousands of meters high.

"Everyone, let's speed up. We absolutely cannot let her escape!"

The speaker was a refined, middle-aged man dressed in snow-white robes. Gazing at the ball of crimson aura in his palm, he laughed heartily. "We are quite lucky. We thought we’d have to reach the 'Heavenly Dragon Trench' in the center of the Immortal Qin Sea to find her, but unexpectedly, she suddenly ran to the edge of the sea area. If I hadn't followed my instinct to take out this aura for a look, she might have really slipped through our fingers this time."

The man in green robes beside him laughed upon hearing this. "I wonder what kind of flower she turned into to achieve sentience. But any flower that can cultivate to the Spirit God realm possesses immeasurable medicinal value. Capturing Ting and bringing her back to the 'Grand Venerable Spirit Realm' will definitely yield quite a few high-grade Tenth-Rank elixirs!"

"Leave the alchemy to me."

The middle-aged man looked slightly smug. "In the Grand Venerable Spirit Realm, our Pill Immortal Sect alone has five Tenth-Rank Medicine Kings. Using flower spirits in medicine is extremely difficult to refine, but it's not impossible. Once the medicine is ready, our Pill Immortal Sect will take sixty percent, and the remaining forty percent will go to your 'Grand Illusion Heavenly Mansion.' Those of us who capture the flower spirit will certainly each receive one Tenth-Rank elixir. Perhaps our cultivation can advance another level then."

The other two young men and women were all smiling broadly, as if the flower spirit was already fish on the chopping block.

"I thought returning to the Spirit Void Realm would be a bit dull, but this turned out to be quite a good assignment. Even losing some divine power to capture the flower spirit is worth it."

"Indeed. To think that for mere two newly ascended Spirit Gods, our Pill Immortal Sect and the Grand Illusion Heavenly Mansion each dispatched two members—this is using an ox-cleaver to kill a chicken, haha!"

"..."

The voices echoed in the void, yet the four figures showed no hesitation; instead, they grew increasingly swift. Twenty to thirty li of space passed in an instant. After a short while, the distant Immortal Qin Sea could vaguely be seen at the edge of their vision, the sea surface gently undulating like rolling mountains.

"Put a little more effort in. The distance to that flower spirit is estimated to be no more than..."

The middle-aged man took out the ball of dark crimson aura again and sensed it carefully for a moment. Just as he was about to finish his sentence with a smile, a faint sense of foreboding arose in his heart, and he instinctively looked back.

It was merely an accidental glance, but the figure of a young man suddenly sprang into his sight. The bizarre smile on that man's face startled the middle-aged man so profoundly that he didn't even have time to alert his companions before feeling layers of white, star-shaped imprints descending from above.

He is that Nie Kong!

The middle-aged man reacted instantly, his palms swelling dozens of times larger as he hurriedly pushed upward.

"Whoosh!"

When the first layer of the white star imprint pressed against his palms, the middle-aged man's body merely sank slightly.

I can still hold on!

However, before a second had even passed, the remaining eight white star imprints stacked down one after another. The terrifying force directly forced the middle-aged man downward. In the blink of an eye, the nine star imprints traversed the thousand-meter void and smashed the middle-aged man fiercely into the ground.

"Boom!"

Nine-Layered Seal!

The forest across several thousand square meters immediately undulated violently like a turbulent ocean. Trees were uprooted, sand and stone splashed everywhere, and the earth churned outwards at a visible speed, as if the heavens were collapsing and the earth was splitting apart.

When the white star imprints vanished, a massive pit, a hundred meters wide and bottomless, appeared on the ground. The earth on the pit walls continued to collapse, completely burying the bottom of the pit. The middle-aged man was nowhere to be seen, and it was impossible to tell if he was buried or pulverized into fragments by the imprints.

"Li Yu!"

Sensing the disturbance behind them, the other three turned around almost simultaneously. They then saw the figure several hundred meters away, along with the scene of the middle-aged man being struck down by the nine star imprints, and were instantly shocked. Li Yu was from the Pill Immortal Sect and had been in the Grand Venerable Spirit Realm for over two thousand years.

In the current Grand Venerable Spirit Realm, Spirit Gods were categorized into nine ranks. Li Yu's true body had already reached Fifth-Rank Spirit God a hundred years ago. Although the one currently in the Spirit Void Realm was only Li Yu's avatar, its strength was in no way inferior to a Third-Rank Spirit God. Yet, he had just been successfully ambushed and defeated in one strike. They could only sense a faint trace of his aura, uncertain if he still possessed any combat capability.

Moreover, the true bodies of the other three were also Fifth-Rank Spirit Gods in the Grand Venerable Spirit Realm, just like Li Yu. None of them had detected that someone had stealthily approached them this closely. If the person launching the sneak attack hadn't targeted Li Yu just now, but one of them instead, it would likely have been just as difficult to evade such a powerful assault.

Judging by the aura emanating from that white star imprint just now...

The person opposite was at least a Third-Rank Spirit God, and one who had reached the limit of the Third Rank; just a little stronger, and he would immediately become a Fourth-Rank Spirit God.

Who was he?

Their gazes flickered, and the face of the person opposite immediately entered their sight.

"Nie An!"

A moment later, the three of them almost simultaneously gasped out the name.

The four Ninth-Rank Illusionary Spirit Masters who had escaped from the Immortal Qin Sea had already drawn sketches of Nie Kong and Tai Yan. The first thing the four Spirit Gods from the Pill Immortal Sect and the Grand Illusion Heavenly Mansion did after descending to the Spirit Void Realm was to familiarize themselves with the appearances of the two individuals they were supposed to kill. With just one look, they recognized the man opposite.

No wonder they hadn't found this person near the flower spirit; he was lying in ambush here, waiting to strike!

But he hadn't been promoted for long. How could his strength have increased so rapidly, reaching Third-Rank Spirit God in just a day or two?