bookpower Chapter 335: Tracking Heavenly Net
Chapter 335: Tracking Heavenly Net
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Half a month later.
A mist-shrouded waterborne immortal city came into the view of an elderly man dressed in a straw raincoat.
The Cloudsmoke Immortal City lay some distance away from the demonic battlefield in the Jing Kingdom.
In times of peace, this lake-bound immortal city was under the jurisdiction of the Merchant Alliance, jointly controlled by several major merchant guilds. Among them, the Snow Fox Merchant Association had been one of the most prominent.
During wartime, however, all immortal cities, family spiritual veins, and family estates were under the unified coordination and command of the sub-branches of the Righteous Dao Alliance.
The old man, whose cultivation appeared to be the late Foundation Establishment stage, needed to pass an identity verification before entering Cloudsmoke Immortal City, which delayed him for some time.
The city was now on high alert, thoroughly investigating any potential demonic spies.
Those without clear identities could easily be arrested and conscripted as cannon fodder.
Using some clever tricks, the elderly man managed to sneak in.
"After one hundred and fifty years, the peace and prosperity of the past, with its freedom of trade, is no more..."
Lan Chang'an walked along the cold and desolate streets, his surroundings foreign and unfamiliar, with not a single familiar face in sight.
Upon inquiry, he learned that the once-flourishing Snow Fox Merchant Association had been torn apart during the war and utterly eradicated in the Jing Kingdom.
The Xunxian Residence, the most upscale inn in the city, survived due to its backing by the Merchant Alliance. However, its business had dwindled significantly.
Presently, Lan Chang'an was not worried about being recognized. His cultivation level, appearance, and aura had all changed over the years.
Learning that the Snow Fox Merchant Association, which had once been closely tied to him, no longer existed left him feeling disheartened.
That night, Lan Chang'an checked into a private courtyard at the Xunxian Residence and organized the intelligence he had gathered recently.
The most critical piece of information concerned the Heavenly Net Sect.
"Old man Heavenly Net hasn’t even fully recovered from his injuries, yet he's already rushing to relocate the sect and his clan?"
Lan Chang'an hadn’t expected the Heavenly Net Sect to move so quickly.
Before he arrived in the Jing Kingdom, the Heavenly Net Sect and the Xie Family of the Chen Kingdom had already begun relocating in batches.
...
After obtaining the Taiyin Jade Essence, Lan Chang'an had made a divination regarding the impending calamity looming over his fate. The results were now clearer, confirming its inevitability.
The Heavenly Master with his higher cultivation could foresee events further in advance.
In the Righteous Dao Alliance, Lan Chang'an had completed two of his objectives. Now, only the final objective remained:
to secure Nascent Soul resources and seize opportunities amid the chaos of war.
However, time felt increasingly scarce. The Golden Sun Sect was no longer a viable target.
Even though the sect had lost an aging Nascent Soul cultivator, they still had Six Sun True Monarch, a experienced and powerful Nascent Soul cultivator in his prime, holding the fort. Taking action against them was too risky. ɌαNôB̧
This left the Heavenly Net Sect, a sect that had been in decline for over a century.
The Heavenly Net Sect had lost its fourth-rank spiritual vein and had suffered continuous losses in the ongoing war against the demonic sects. Coupled with poor management, its strength had plummeted.
The Heavenly Net Ancestor, who had at most two hundred years of lifespan remaining, had exhausted much of his foundation due to escaping with his Nascent Soul twice and having to reconstruct his physical body and restore his cultivation. His overall strength was notably weaker than that of other Nascent Soul cultivators.
Even so, a skinny camel was still bigger than a horse.
Even without considering the Heavenly Net Ancestor, the combined strength of the Heavenly Net Sect and the Xie Family far exceeded that of minor sects like Jin Yun Valley.
Because of the looming calamity in his future, Lan Chang'an wasn’t too eager to strike against the Heavenly Net Sect.
After all, the longer he lingered in the Eastern Region of Great Qing, the more dangerous it became.
However, he hadn’t expected the Heavenly Net Sect to choose this moment to relocate to the Seven Kingdoms Alliance.
"The Tinghai Pavilion left a hidden spatial node near the Seven Kingdoms Alliance..."
Lan Chang'an’s eyes gleamed as he began calculating.
He intended to investigate the reliability of this spatial node. Coincidentally, it was along the same route the Heavenly Net Sect was taking during their migration.
If the node proved viable, Lan Chang'an planned to travel to the Great Yuan to pursue his path to forming a Nascent Soul.
First, he could avoid various risks, including the future calamity.
After obtaining the Taiyin Jade Essence, Lan Chang'an had provoked the envy and hatred of many individuals and factions, making his position within the Righteous Dao Alliance increasingly precarious.
On the demonic side, the Beast King Valley Elder was also eyeing him with hostility.
If the war situation collapsed and the Peacock Saintess returned, the Beast King Valley would undoubtedly come for him.
Second, the Great Yuan had a flourishing cultivation civilization, abundant resources, and far better opportunities for forming a Nascent Soul than the Great Qing region.
Even the regions surrounding the Righteous Dao Alliance or the Ten Great Xuan Sects in the Great Qing central region couldn’t compare.
Under these circumstances, traveling to the Great Yuan was a win-win for Lan Chang'an.
"Since it's on the way, let's see what happens."
Lan Chang'an didn’t believe that the Heavenly Net Ancestor, at his advanced age, hadn’t prepared resources for forming a Nascent Soul for his sect and family.
Even if they lacked the Infant Transformation Pill, there were bound to be other precious treasures—spiritual materials, heavenly treasures, and Tribulation-resolving treasures—that were useful for advancing to Nascent Soul.
Lan Chang'an had long-standing grievances with the Heavenly Net Sect and the Xie Family. He felt no moral hesitation about striking at them when they were down.
Moreover, he wasn’t the only one eyeing the Heavenly Net Sect.
In the world of cultivation, there was no lack of taking advantage of the situation.
The Heavenly Net Sect, having been notorious for its arrogance and bullying, had accumulated plenty of enemies over the years.
...
The next morning.
At dawn, Lan Chang'an did not linger and left Cloudsmoke Immortal City.
As he exited the city, he encountered another round of inspections.
“Senior, please listen to me! Yan Hong is my family’s newlywed son-in-law, so his face may seem unfamiliar, but he’s definitely not a demonic spy!”
A soft, pleading female voice rang out.
A pair of young cultivators at the late Qi-Refining stage were undergoing a harsh interrogation by the city guards. The young male cultivator had been detained.
Lan Chang'an casually glanced at the scene, finding such occurrences commonplace.
Hmm?
His gaze suddenly focused on the anxious young female cultivator. She was dressed in a Snow Fox Robe, her features delicate and refined, with eyes as clear and icy as crystals.
At first glance, she seemed vaguely familiar to Lan Chang'an, as though she carried an air of connection to him.
Her appearance and demeanor faintly reminded him of Hanyu Immortal from many years ago, though the resemblance wasn’t striking.
When Lan Chang'an noticed her wearing a Snow Fox Robe, he made a quick calculation in his mind, his thoughts churning.
Back then, Hanyu Immortal’s name had been Gao Lingyu.
Although the Snow Fox Merchant Association had fractured and ceased to exist, the cultivation families that once comprised the guild had not been completely wiped out.
The Gao Family, which Hanyu Immortal hailed from, had now fallen to the level of an ordinary Foundation Establishment family. The young woman in the Snow Fox Robe was likely the most talented cultivator of the current generation.
“Little lady of the Gao family!” The guard, a dark-skinned cultivator at the early Foundation Establishment stage, sneered as he spoke. “Your husband has no recorded activities in Cloudsmoke Immortal City. Where did he come from? What of his ancestry? And does he have a criminal past? If any of these questions remain unanswered, he’ll be taken for interrogation, in case he is a demonic spy.”
“Senior, please be merciful,” the woman—Gao Xueqing—pleaded with a bow, her tone laced with desperation. She discreetly slipped a pouch filled with spirit stones to the dark-skinned guard.
“Miss Gao!” The guard’s eyes glimmered coldly as he scanned the pouch with his spiritual sense, only to smirk disdainfully. “Attempting to bribe a patrol cultivator is explicitly against the rules!”
He pushed the pouch back toward her, but not before his fingers lightly brushed against her smooth, jade-like fingertips.
Gao Xueqing pulled her hand back swiftly, shame and anger flashing across her face.
However, the Heavenly Net Sect and the Xie Family had proven equally cunning.
The vast faction had split into numerous groups, some traveling openly while others moved covertly, all departing from different locations and taking different routes toward the Seven Kingdoms Alliance.
It was impossible to discern which groups contained the core members of the Heavenly Net Sect or the direct descendants of the Xie Family.
Even the Heavenly Net Ancestor had left the Jing Kingdom, but his current whereabouts were unknown.
Not even Unseen Gate had been able to determine his exact location in the short term.
"The Heavenly Net Ancestor is casting a wide net. Even if they suffer significant losses, as long as they preserve their core lineage, resources, and inheritance, there’s no doubt they’ll rise again someday."
Lan Chang'an couldn’t help but admire the ruthlessness of the Heavenly Net Ancestor’s strategy.
The Seven Kingdoms Alliance was an expansive territory.
It could be reached by heading west along the Black Fog Mountain Range or directly westward from the Jing Kingdom or the Chen Kingdom. Such a wide range of routes made it nearly impossible to block them completely.
Even deploying the forces of a Nascent Soul sect to hunt them down wouldn’t guarantee a clean sweep.
However, the journey was long and arduous. Even for Core Formation cultivators, flying would take over a month.
The distance was only part of the problem.
The route passed through vast barren lands with impoverished or even completely absent spiritual energy. Some areas were treacherous, with harsh environments that hindered travel.
The higher one’s cultivation, the less they were affected by these conditions.
For example, Core Formation Great Cultivators and Nascent Soul True Monarchs had vast reserves of spiritual energy, making them less susceptible to environmental factors. They required fewer rest stops to replenish their energy, allowing them to travel continuously.
...
Half a day later.
After performing a divination, Lan Chang'an obtained no definitive results, only a vague direction.
Fortunately, the general direction coincided with the location of the spatial node he intended to investigate.
Lan Chang'an held on to the idea of taking things as they came and flew all the way west in the direction of the Seven Kingdoms Alliance.
Years ago, he had traveled to the Seven Kingdoms Alliance under the alias Nie Yuan, where he had secretly assisted the Flame Departing Palace in acquiring a quasi-fourth-rank spiritual vein, fulfilling the last wishes of the departed Master Lihuo.
This time, while his general destination was the same, the specific route he took was slightly different.
In the vast and desolate wilderness, even the slightest deviation in direction could result in a difference of thousands of miles.
Several tens of thousands of li later.
Luck seemed to be on Lan Chang'an's side. His powerful spiritual sense detected a migrating group of cultivators from the Xie Family of the Chen Kingdom, one of the factions associated with the Heavenly Net Sect.
The group was led by a Fake Dan cultivator, with the rest mostly at the Foundation Establishment stage, along with a few late-stage Qi-Refining cultivators.
"A Fake Dan cultivator leading the group... likely a disposable pawn meant to distract and mislead pursuers," Lan Chang'an mused, probing the group carefully with his spiritual sense.
After confirming that there were no hidden experts among them, Lan Chang'an dispatched his Earth Burrowing Rat and Archer Puppet to deal with the group. In just a few breaths, the entire team of migrating cultivators was eliminated.
Lan Chang'an had no intention of sparing potential enemies. Though he disdained slaughtering the weak, there was always the possibility that the Heavenly Net Ancestor had hidden important resources among such seemingly unremarkable groups.
The Earth Burrowing Rat quickly scavenged the battlefield and presented the spoils to Lan Chang'an.
"Hmph, I was overthinking," Lan Chang'an muttered after examining the loot.
The so-called treasures were mostly junk. The most valuable item was a shoddy low-grade magical treasure carried by the Fake Dan leader.
For ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators, this haul would have been a windfall capable of altering their cultivation trajectory. However, it was barely worth mentioning to Lan Chang'an.
The real gain for Lan Chang'an lay not in the material spoils but in the bloodline of the Xie Family.
From the bodies of a few deceased cultivators with purer bloodline connections, Lan Chang'an extracted a Bloodline Pearl, a sinister technique originating from the Blood Spirit Sect of the Six Demonic Sects, on the side of Great Qing.
Having inherited the memories of two Nascent Soul True Monarchs, Lan Chang'an was naturally proficient in such methods.
The Bloodline Pearl allowed him to sense and track other Xie Family bloodline holders within a certain range, depending on the practitioner’s spiritual energy and spiritual sense.
For someone of Lan Chang'an's cultivation, this range extended up to two thousand li.
However, this technique came with risks.
If a higher-level cultivator—such as a Nascent Soul True Monarch—happened to be within the range of the bloodline detection, they could reverse the technique, tracing it back to the user. For most cultivators, such a scenario would mean certain death.
This was why few dared to use the Bloodline Pearl recklessly. The risk of attracting the attention of the Heavenly Net Ancestor himself made it a perilous gamble.
Lan Chang'an, however, had no such concerns.
The Heavenly Net Ancestor was reputedly the weakest of the Righteous Dao Alliance's remaining Nascent Soul cultivators, and Lan Chang'an was unafraid of facing him directly.
...
With the Bloodline Pearl and his divination skills, Lan Chang'an’s tracking efficiency improved significantly.
Two days later, he locked onto another migrating group from the Heavenly Net Sect and Xie Family.
Huh!
When Lan Chang'an approached within a few hundred li, he sensed intense energy fluctuations from a battle nearby.
The clash included Core Formation-level combatants, with spells tearing through the landscape, shattering mountains and sending debris flying.
“Xuan Yin Sect! Xiang Jinglong!”
A furious voice echoed amidst the chaos.
“Instead of defending against the demonic forces at the frontlines, you turn on former allies who once fought alongside you?”
A middle-aged Core Formation cultivator from the Heavenly Net Sect, dressed in a scholar's cap and robes, was leading over a dozen sect disciples in a desperate struggle.
Their opponents were two Core Formation-level experts, along with four Fake Dan cultivators.
The leaders of the Xuan Yin Sect’s group included a white-browed Daoist who wielded a spell of black clouds and dark thunder, which trapped and suppressed the Heavenly Net Sect cultivators.
The second leader wasn’t a True Dan cultivator but a third-rank body cultivator, a towering, two-zhang-tall giant covered in black demonic patterns, exuding waves of murderous aura.
The giant’s face was unmistakably that of Xiang Jinglong, but his transformed body resembled an indomitable iron fortress, radiating overwhelming power.
No spell attacks seemed to faze him; they merely bounced off his skin like raindrops.
Boom!!
A Fake Dan cultivator from the Heavenly Net Sect was caught off guard as Xiang Jinglong closed the distance with incredible speed. With one punch, their protective barrier shattered, and their body exploded in a mist of blood.
Even the middle-aged Core Formation cultivator, who had barely evaded several attacks, was now on the brink of death.
“Earth Fiend Heaven-Supporting Art... worthy of being a top-tier body cultivation divine technique!” the white-browed Daoist remarked leisurely, providing support from the rear.
In less than half a cup of tea’s time, the Heavenly Net Sect forces were annihilated.
The sole Core Formation cultivator from the Heavenly Net Sect, his scholar’s cap knocked askew, stood battered and defeated. He resembled nothing more than prey, tightly clutched by Xiang Jinglong’s massive, demonic-patterned hand, utterly immobilized.
“Xie Xiao, a direct great-grandson of the Heavenly Net Ancestor! Congratulations, Protector Xiang—you’ve caught a big one,” the white-browed Daoist said, offering his congratulations.
“Hmph, weaklings.”
Xiang Jinglong reverted to his normal appearance—a dark-skinned, muscular middle-aged man. Cracking his neck, he seemed as though he hadn’t even warmed up yet.
The Heavenly Net Sect and the Xuan Yin Sect had long-standing grudges within the Jing Kingdom, and the Xuan Yin Sect wouldn’t miss the chance to strike while the Heavenly Net Sect was down.
However, openly attacking a former ally from the war against the demonic sects was disgraceful, even if the Heavenly Net Sect’s reputation was already tarnished.
Moreover, the Xuan Yin Sect’s main forces were tied up on the demonic battlefield, so their leader, Sect Master Liang, had assigned this mission to the opportunistic Xiang Jinglong, hoping to scavenge some resources from the migrating Heavenly Net Sect.
“Tch! As expected of the Xie Family’s direct line,” Xiang Jinglong said, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction as he inventoried the spoils. “This man was carrying the main ingredient for a Condensing Crystal Pill and a quasi-fourth-rank Azure Profound Wood.”
With a grin, Xiang Jinglong handed the items to the white-browed Daoist for safekeeping.
“Fellow Daoist Lin,” he said with a chuckle, “I’ll trouble you with the soul-searching. We need to find out the Heavenly Net Sect’s migration secrets—especially the routes their core members are taking.”