Chapter 426: The Nine Heavens Sea Myriad Ancient Pagoda

Li Ban's decision to leave the Unreturning Place caught many people off guard.

Plenty of them had already taken him for Priest Qian Que's successor.

No one expected him to leave with Priest Li He for the Nine Heavens Sea instead.

Still, none of them had any say in what Li Ban chose to do.

Once Priest Qian Que took charge of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda's affairs again, Li Ban and Priest Li He were ready to set out.

"Since you're heading out, could I trouble you to take something to Priest Yao for me, Priest Ban?"

Priest Qian Que handed Li Ban a jade vial.

After learning that Du An had appeared at the Nine Heavens Sea, Priest Zhu Yao had gone there to capture him and still hadn't returned.

Yet Li Ban now believed Du An would never be caught so easily.

After all, the man was an avatar of that person.

Though Li Ban didn't know how Gu Yi had become the Ultimate, he suspected that Gu Yi's ability to reclaim all his split-off mind fragments in the end had to be tied to certain key avatars.

The likeliest candidates were the Director and Du An.

Having spent time around Du An, Li Ban knew full well how ruthless and decisive he could be, and how patiently he could lie low.

Putting the jade vial away, Li Ban bade a proper farewell to his friends at the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, including Shi Ming and Deng Jun, before turning into a clear breeze alongside Priest Li He and sweeping across the Nine Provinces.

Watching Li Ban gradually fade from sight before his eyes, Deng Jun couldn't help feeling a surge of emotion.

The Lord Li of old really did look just like an immortal straight out of a storybook now.

He turned to look at Shi Ming, only to catch a trace of sorrow in the man's eyes.

"Hey, you're not about to cry, are you? Sure, Lord Li Ban went to the Nine Heavens Sea, but it's not like he's never coming back. Didn't you see how easy it was for Priest Li He to make the trip back and forth?"

Shi Ming shook his head and lowered his gaze, refusing to say what was bothering him.

Deng Jun scratched his head in frustration beside him, unable to pry a single word out of Shi Ming's mouth.

"Let's go," Shi Ming said in a muffled voice. "Time for us to go catch bugs."

"Right, let's go!" Deng Jun gave Shi Ming a push. Once they got to work, the great Scholar Shi surely wouldn't have time left for grieving over spring and lamenting autumn.

Priest Qian Que stood atop the roof of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, gazing south.

A moment later, Qian Lailai clambered onto the roof and propped her arms on the upturned eaves.

"Ancestor," she asked, tilting her head, "why can't I become a Priest?"

A smile touched Priest Qian Que's lips, though his words didn't pull any punches.

"You ought to ask everyone else why they weren't born as Qian Lailai."

Qian Lailai curled her lip. "Can I go travel around the Nine Provinces?"

"And give up your identity?"

Qian Lailai stamped her foot. "Ancestor!"

She rolled right off the eaves.

High in the sky, Li Ban flew at top speed behind Priest Li He.

Now that their strength had reached such a high Tier, they moved too fast for onlookers to catch even a blur.

They passed Capital City and Lan Province, crossed the Daqingshan Mountain Range into Tu Province, and kept flying southwest.

At last, the sea came into view.

The horizon at the far end of the ocean was blurry; the edge of the Wizard World lay out there too, shrouded in mist.

Yet the mist out there was different from the mist anywhere else.

The mist at the end of the sea poured down from the sky, growing thicker the higher up it went.

Li Ban drew his gaze back and looked down at the nearer coastline.

Sheer cliffs lined the shore, with hardly a mudflat in sight.

Much of the coast looked as though it had been hacked straight down with an axe, leaving the rock faces nearly vertical.

Nine-story towers built like blockhouses stood along the cliff edges.

Many of them ringed the coastline—like sharp swords thrust toward the heavens, and like a shield guarding the Nine Provinces.

Priest Li He was already one of the leaders of the Nine Heavens Sea Myriad Ancient Pagoda, and he brought Li Ban straight down onto one unremarkable nine-story tower.

None of the towers here had eaves; their top floor was an open terrace.

The moment the two of them touched down on the terrace, several Priests stepped forward and bowed respectfully.

Li Ban glanced to the side and spotted a familiar face among them.

Priest Huinv.

He still remembered the sheer resolve with which the Priest Huinv of the Recycling Station had held back the mutated Priest Chu Zhan all by herself.

Though the Priest Gounv standing here wasn't the exact same person as the one in the Recycling Station, Li Ban was sure that at this point in time, Priest Gounv and Priest Chu Zhan were still tangled in love and resentment.

Bound by their respective duties and the relative peace and safety of the Wizard World, however, those feelings could be held in check, with no urgent need to be voiced.

And it was precisely because they held back now that Priest Huinv would ultimately throw everything to the wind and choose to stay behind with Priest Chu Zhan in the Sea of Monsters forever.

Right now, Priest Huinv was still that composed, self-restrained Dark Moon Priest.

"Priest Li He," she greeted Li He first, then turned naturally toward Li Ban. "This must be Li Ban, the most formidable new Priest in the Wizard World."

Li Ban stepped forward. "Senior Huinv."

Li He hadn't expected Li Ban to recognize Huinv on sight, though on second thought, someone else had probably told him about her beforehand.

Several other Priests stood nearby. As everyone exchanged introductions, Li Ban realized there were quite a few high-Tier Priests stationed here.

Having duties of his own to hand over, Priest Li He left Li Ban in Priest Huinv's care and took his leave first.

Once the pleasantries were out of the way, Li Ban asked, "May I ask where Priest Zhu Yao is?"

The two of them flew along the coastline as she showed Li Ban around the Nine Heavens Sea.

"Some time ago, Du An showed up near the coast, trying to sneak into the Nine Provinces. That was a trap we'd laid for him, though. Right before Priest Ling Feng could capture him, an unfamiliar Black Robe rescued him and took him away. According to Priest Ling Feng, that Black Robe also had Solar Radiance strength. Even so, Priest Zhu Yao headed straight into the deep sea region to hunt for their trail. She usually goes out for a day or two at a time. She's already been gone a full day on this trip, so she should be back tomorrow or the day after."

Li Ban wasn't surprised.

Du An had become an obsession for Zhu Yao. Naturally, she would pour everything she had into tracking him down, setting even her cultivation aside until Du An was dead.

A moment later, another key detail in Priest Huinv's words caught his attention.

"An unfamiliar black-robed priest? And at Solar Radiance?" Li Ban immediately thought of the Black Robe who had saved Du An in the Nihility State.

That black-robed priest was shrouded in mystery.

Several Solar Priests had subsequently tried to look into where he came from and where he'd gone, only to find that the man seemed to have sprung out of thin air, leaving not a single clue to his identity behind.

Priest Huinv told Li Ban that their side hadn't turned up any leads either.

"How could a Solar Priest just spring out of nowhere? Not unless he comes from somewhere else entirely beyond our reach."

"From outside the world?" Li Ban ventured.

He actually had another guess in mind, though it wasn't an option he could say out loud.

"It's possible, though that still doesn't explain why he's rescued Du An more than once."

It looked like Priest Huinv knew about what had happened in the Nihility State as well.

"Did you come to the Nine Heavens Sea to join the hunt for Du An, Priest Li Ban?"

"Plenty of powerful Priests are already after him. Too many people would only get in the way, so I'll stay out of it. Besides, compared to the powerful seniors here, my strength still has a long way to go."

His goal right now was to fuse the wizard embryo of the Trash Realm as quickly as possible and advance to Solar Radiance.