Chapter 389 - 376: Qi Concealing Pill

Chapter 389: Chapter 376: Qi Concealing Pill

Li Yuan sat at his desk and took out the few jade vials covered in interlocking Restrictions.

After he finished sending the message, the mole’s activity had dropped significantly, becoming almost nonexistent.

Five Divine Sense Lines extended from between his eyebrows, like incredibly fine tendrils, slowly seeping in along the Demonic Qi patterns on the vials’ surfaces. This was delicate work. Forcing it would detonate the Demonic Qi inside and destroy the medicinal pills. It took him nearly an hour to dismantle the Restrictions on all five jade vials, one by one.

He pulled out a stopper, and a faint, earthy smell drifted out.

Li Yuan tilted one of the jade vials, pouring a dark gray pill into his palm. The pill’s surface was coarse and dull, and its medicinal properties seemed quite mild—a stark contrast to the typically aggressive and overbearing nature of the Demon Dao.

This was the standard-issue item for Demon Cultivators of the Dark Abyss Association: the Qi Concealing Pill. Its quality wasn’t anything special, but its extreme practicality made up for it. Consuming one could suppress a Cultivator’s presence and residual Spiritual Power to a minimum, making it difficult for ordinary investigation-type Magic to lock on. These pills were a major reason the Demon Cultivators had managed to lie low right under the Primordial Yang Sect’s nose for so long.

The moment his fingertip touched the dark gray pill, the panel appeared.

[Detected equippable item: Qi Concealing Pill (Intact)]

[Equipment Entry Preview: Submerged Aura (Green)]

[Effect: Aura ripples greatly reduced. Probability of being discovered by investigation-type Magic decreased by 50%.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Possess two or more permanent Concealment-type entries (Condition Met)]

The condition was displayed as "Met."

Li Yuan didn’t hesitate. He placed the Qi Concealing Pill into an empty slot.

"Equip."

[Equipped: Qi Concealing Pill (Intact)]

[Submerged Aura (Green) Permanence Condition Met]

[Submerged Aura (Green) has become a permanent entry]

In the equipment slot, the phantom image of the Qi Concealing Pill solidified for less than a breath before dissolving into motes of light. The slot was empty once more.

At the very instant the entry became permanent, an extremely intense resonance surged from the depths of Li Yuan’s Sea of Divine Sense.

The panel appeared again, its text flashing.

[System Prompt: Detected entries of the same origin and type. Fusion conditions met.]

[Triple Obscurity (Green) + Submerged Aura (Green) beginning fusion.]

That profound sensation from when he had fused the Earth Vein Spirit Hub returned. All sorts of insights regarding Concealment, cloaking, and aura suppression intertwined and converged within his Sea of Divine Sense. Two fundamentally different systems—active cloaking and passive suppression—perfectly slotted together in that moment.

[Fusion Complete]

[New Entry Acquired: Phantom Concealment (Blue)]

[Effect: When actively concealed, almost perfectly eliminates all detectable traces; in a passive state, aura ripples are reduced by 70%; movement speed is unaffected while concealed; immune to investigation-type Magic of the same or lower rank.]

’A blue-tier entry.’

Li Yuan immediately channeled his Spiritual Power, activating the active Concealment effect of Phantom Concealment.

The room appeared unchanged, but if another Cultivator at Foundation Establishment Perfection had been standing there, they would have come to a single conclusion, whether they used Divine Sense or investigation Magic: there was no one in front of the desk.

Li Yuan rose from his meditation cushion and took two quick steps within the narrow stone room.

This was the most crucial, fundamental change. Previously, when using Triple Obscurity, he could erase his aura, but moving too quickly would cause his Spiritual Power shield to create faint ripples as it cut through the air. That was why he always had to deliberately slow his pace when sneaking, or rely on the Teleportation Skill to jump through space.

Now, however, his movement in a concealed state was completely unrestricted. The air seemed to lose all resistance, flowing naturally past his body without creating the slightest ripple. He didn’t even stir the dust on the floor.

With a seventy percent reduction in aura ripples in a passive state, plus immunity to investigation Magic of his rank or lower, it meant that as long as he reined in his Spiritual Power, he didn’t even need to actively conceal himself. Any investigation Arrays or Magic at the Foundation Establishment Stage would be utterly useless against him.

His arsenal of concealment techniques had finally gained its most important piece.

Active Concealment from Phantom Concealment, passive camouflage from Illusory Face Disguise, and early warnings from Dark Evil Insight. He could advance to kill in silence or retreat and change his appearance, all while instantly perceiving any Demonic Qi probes from his enemies.

Li Yuan gathered the remaining Qi Concealing Pills from the desk, pushed open the door, and stepped out of the stone room.

Now that his Concealment ability had undergone a fundamental upgrade, it was the perfect time to investigate the suspicious locations provided by the Demon Cultivator from Skeleton Valley.

Once outside the marketplace, Li Yuan activated Phantom Concealment and immediately pushed his speed to the limit.

The scenery flew past him, the only sound a low whisper of wind in his ears. He was like a ghost, completely blended into the background as he zipped through the thick fog on the outskirts of the Ghost Mist Forest. When he passed several hidden posts and Investigation Arrays set up by the Primordial Yang Sect, he didn’t even bother to detour, cutting straight past the edge of the formations.

The Array Discs showed no reaction, and the Cultivators in the hidden posts didn’t so much as twitch an eyelid.

In less than an hour, Li Yuan had ventured deep into the heart of the Ghost Mist Forest and arrived at the first coordinate marked on the jade slip.

It was a low-lying basin blanketed in grayish-black vines.

Li Yuan stopped on the branch of a dead tree, spreading out both his Spirit Vein Affinity perception and his Dark Evil Insight. His sensory net spread out like quicksilver, covering every corner of the area for miles around.

No residual Arrays, no abnormal Spiritual Power nodes, and no trace of accumulated Demonic Qi. Over a hundred feet underground, there were only ordinary rock formations, without even a minuscule branch of a Spirit Vein.

’A completely dead location.’

He didn’t linger, immediately turning to head for the second coordinate.

Ten miles away, beneath a fractured cliff.

Again, he found nothing. Aside from a few Low Tier Demon Beasts lurking in rock crevices, there was no sign of human interference.

The third coordinate was deep within a poisonous marsh that never saw the sun.

Li Yuan hovered above the marsh, his Divine Sense piercing through the viscous muck and deep into the earth below. The result was still disappointing. There was nothing but swamp gas and decaying sludge.

All three locations were empty.

Li Yuan stood at the edge of the marsh, pondering for a moment.

’The Demon Cultivator had no reason to lie about this,’ he thought. ’Since the Dark Abyss Association listed these coordinates as suspicious, someone must have sensed abnormal Spiritual Power fluctuations here at some point.’

’Either the fluctuations are cyclical, and it’s currently a dormant period. Or, these locations are just tiny vents for some massive Array system, and the true core is located far from here.’

’Without more clues, there’s no point in digging randomly.’

Li Yuan didn’t dwell on it. He turned and headed back the way he came.

By the time he returned to the marketplace, the sky was bright.

Li Yuan had just sat down in his stone house and hadn’t yet poured himself a cup of tea when there was a knock at his courtyard gate.

Xu Zhang stood outside, his expression far more serious than usual.

"Pavilion Master Li."

"Come in."

The two sat down inside. Xu Zhang dispensed with the pleasantries, pulling a plain, unmarked jade slip from his sleeve and sliding it across the desk.

"This is a summary of intel that just came in from the Mingyuan Commerce Association headquarters. There are a few things I felt you needed to know immediately."

The Mingyuan Commerce Association’s reach extended across the Four States. While their intelligence network didn’t deal in the core secrets of Sects, their insight into major trends and personnel movements was often sharper than that of the Primordial Yang Sect itself.

Li Yuan picked up the jade slip and swept it with his Divine Sense.

The first few entries were routine reports on price fluctuations for goods on the trade routes between Jingzhou and Yunzhou. His gaze only paused when it reached the final entry.

"The Celestial Peak Sect has recently increased its focus on Liangzhou. Ten days ago, two Celestial Peak Sect teams entered Liangzhou via the Sunset Corridor. Their current whereabouts are unknown."

Celestial Peak Sect.

The Nascent Soul Grand Sect that spanned the Three States and kept the three Golden Core Sects of Jingzhou completely suppressed.

Li Yuan put down the jade slip and looked at Xu Zhang.

Xu Zhang lowered his voice. "The Celestial Peak Sect almost never gets involved in Liangzhou’s affairs. They have over ten Golden Core Cultivators, not to mention a Nascent Soul Ancestor who has lived for a thousand years. In terms of sheer power, the Primordial Yang Sect is nothing more than a slightly larger school to them."

"What are they doing in Liangzhou?" Li Yuan asked.

"The specifics are unclear," Xu Zhang said, his expression grave. "But it’s definitely not good news."

Li Yuan’s gaze narrowed slightly.

He recalled overhearing disciples of the Celestial Peak Sect talking in a teahouse back in the White Mirror marketplace. Their Nascent Soul Ancestor was scouring the world for a chance to break through to the Divinity Transformation realm, and had even ordered the Sect’s Array specialists to research spatial phenomena.

Li Yuan himself didn’t know what lay hidden in the depths of the Ghost Mist Forest. There was the Jade Bead sealed in the core of the Profound Nether Sub-Palace’s Array, and the disciple’s journal that mentioned the Sect Master siphoning a Spirit Vein to cultivate *something*.

It was supposed to be a simple contest between Liangzhou’s two Golden Core Sects, the Primordial Yang Sect and the Evil Slaying Sect. The two were evenly matched and mutually wary, so their Golden Core Cultivators had always exercised restraint, not daring to enter the fray lightly.

But the Celestial Peak Sect was different.

They possessed the power to crush everyone else. If that Nascent Soul Ancestor truly had his sights set on this place, sending just two or three Golden Core elders would be enough to shatter the existing balance of power in Liangzhou.

"Does the Primordial Yang Sect’s upper echelon know about this?" Li Yuan asked.

"They must. The Celestial Peak Sect’s people marched right through the Sunset Corridor without any attempt to conceal their movements." Xu Zhang sighed. "The Ghost Mist Forest is now a powder keg waiting to explode. Our association has already started scaling back business in the remote marketplaces."

After Xu Zhang left, Li Yuan sat at the desk, his fingers unconsciously tapping the surface.

All the factions were gathering, and fast. The Demon Cultivators of the Dark Abyss Association, the Evil Slaying Sect’s Golden Core master stationed at Black Water Valley, the Primordial Yang Sect’s exploration teams... and now, the unassailable Celestial Peak Sect.

The vortex that was the Ghost Mist Forest was growing larger and larger.