With the outbreak of the righteous and demonic war once again, the already precarious order of the martial world had utterly collapsed.
It had collapsed to the point where the imperial court was deeply troubled.
They were forced to dispatch some of the Imperial Guards to maintain public order.
Concurrently, Emperor Qin De personally issued a decree, ordering the major righteous sects to quickly stabilize the martial world's order. Otherwise, he would not hesitate to treat all martial artists as rebels and traitors, unifying the suppression and eradicating them all.
At the same time, Hu Heyong grew even more worried.
When the martial world's order was barely stable, he was already very concerned about his daughter's safety. Now that the martial world was in such chaos, he was no longer just worried about his daughter's safety; he was worried about whether his daughter was alive or dead out there.
Unfortunately, the commandery he governed.
It was bordered on both sides by strongholds of the Witch God Cult and the Five Poisons Sect, and in front of it lay the Kunlun Sect. It was truly not a peaceful place, with constant localized chaos.
He had already exhausted all his efforts and painstakingly tried to maintain order, leaving him no extra time to search for his daughter.
He could only secretly hope his daughter was blessed with good fortune and longevity.
And that she would voluntarily return as soon as possible.
...
As for what Ding Yun was doing at this time?
She was learning fortune-telling!
That's right, she was diligently studying the *I Ching* and Bagua divination.
The situation was as follows.
Currently, Ding Yun had only one definite enemy: Zhao Qiankun, the leader of the Moon-Worshipping Demonic Cult.
Following him were the members of the Moon-Worshipping Demonic Cult.
However, the speed of information dissemination was too slow, and she had no particularly good channels for obtaining information. Every time she learned of Zhao Xiaoyao's appearance, it was already half a month old news.
Who knew where he had gone by then.
Even if she ran her swift horse to death, she might not be able to accurately track the whereabouts of Zhao Xiaoyao, the leader of the demonic cult.
And by the time a spy network was established and became useful, it would likely be twenty years later. Ding Yun couldn't wait. Therefore, after ruling out other options with no hope or too slow efficiency, Ding Yun could only place her last hope on the *I Ching* and Bagua.
Since martial arts were real in this world, and a system could even upgrade martial arts to the level of immortal cultivation, then fortune-telling should also have some use. Even if her fortune-telling ability wasn't great to begin with, as long as the level was high enough, it would eventually transform qualitatively, evolving or giving birth to extraordinary characteristics.
This was the reason she was diligently studying the *I Ching* and Bagua.
However, the *I Ching* and Bagua were genuinely difficult to learn.
It wasn't that Ding Yun's intelligence was insufficient to learn them.
The key was that it was very difficult to find someone who truly understood these things. Most of the masters caught on the streets were swindlers. Among the few who weren't swindlers, they only understood superficial knowledge and couldn't explain the underlying principles themselves, let alone teach others.
Therefore, Ding Yun hadn't even gotten past the introductory stage after studying for half a month.
She had consistently failed to find a reliable teacher.
Nor had she found reliable related books.
As the saying goes, "False teachings spread a thousand times, true teachings are but a single sentence." Without receiving that single sentence, one could learn a mountain of things or read a pile of fabricated nonsense, all to no avail!
In the end, Ding Yun had no choice but to deal with more evildoers, destroying dozens of bandit dens and managing to learn a movement technique with stealth capabilities. She also upgraded that movement technique to an extraordinary level.
Then, she unceremoniously went to infiltrate the imperial palace at night.
Her primary objective was to find books in the imperial library, specifically those related to the *I Ching* and Bagua, and incidentally, to examine the martial arts manuals or medical texts secretly stored in the palace.
It would be a shame for such valuable items to be piled up in the inner palace. Ding Yun planned to take note of them and consider disseminating them later, lest the wisdom of the ancestors be buried in the wilderness.
If he kept his secrets and you kept yours, eventually everything would be lost.
And this was merely Ding Yun's first stop.
If she still couldn't find them there, she would have to venture to places like the Heavenly Master's Mansion, filled with "divine stick" types, or continue to take risks and learn from some sects.
Fortunately, heaven favored the diligent.
The imperial palace's foundation was indeed considerable.
After a day of reconnaissance and two days of frantic searching, Ding Yun finally found something truly valuable.
And she had grasped the basics of Bagua divination.
Then, of course, she immediately proceeded to upgrade it, raising it to level twenty in one go. Utilizing the "Destiny Tracking" trait gained upon reaching level twenty, she first calculated a destiny connected to Zhao Xiaoyao based on the known information.
Then, using this destiny as a foundation.
She divined his current location and could continue to divine his movements at any time.
It was like having a GPS tracker installed on him.
While it might not have been as convenient as a GPS tracker, the result was similar.
Now that she knew Zhao Xiaoyao's location, and could even continue to track his movements, Ding Yun immediately mounted her newly purchased horse and set off.
After changing directions several times and spending three days, Ding Yun finally approached Zhao Xiaoyao.
He had just entered the Kunlun Mountain Range.
If nothing unexpected happened.
It was likely he was preparing to make a move against the Kunlun Sect.
As Ding Yun used her light body technique to gradually approach, the people accompanying Zhao Xiaoyao were recognized one by one by Ding Yun. In addition to the disciples of the Moon-Worshipping Demonic Cult, the disciples and leaders of the Five Poisons Sect and the Bloodthirsty Sect had also arrived, presumably planning to join forces.
Since Ding Yun's plan was to poison rather than engage in direct confrontation, she did not dare to act in broad daylight.
Finally, she waited until nightfall, when Zhao Xiaoyao and his companions were preparing to eat a meal before launching a night attack on the Kunlun Sect. Only then did she begin to poison the nearby water sources.
She couldn't help it; they carried their own rations and didn't light fires to attract attention. Poisoning each person's rations would likely exhaust Ding Yun. Thus, she specifically poisoned several nearby water sources.
The poison was colorless and odorless, and not lethal.
It could only cause unconsciousness.
Moreover, the efficacy of the medicine was limited and would dissipate in water after two days. So, there was no need to worry about poisoning the water sources leading to the death of other humans or animals.
However, members of the demonic sects were more cautious than those bandit leaders. They specifically had their poison experts and the leader of the Five Poisons Sect inspect the water sources separately, and only used them after confirming there were no issues.
Unfortunately, among them, the strongest poison masters were likely only at level eight or nine, completely incapable of contending with the level twenty Ding Yun, nor could they identify the medicine Ding Yun had concocted.
Thus, half an hour later.
They all collapsed to the ground one by one.
Only four individuals at the Innate realm were still holding on, roaring with anger. Especially the young Zhao Xiaoyao, who was so enraged that his eyes turned red. In his life, he had never suffered such humiliation.
However, while he was angry and flustered, he was not foolish.
So, he was merely feigning anger and roaring on the surface, while secretly searching for the antidote pills he carried and trying to circulate his profound internal energy to detoxify himself.
However, even though his internal energy was formidable, far surpassing that of ordinary Innate realm cultivators, he had still not broken through the Innate realm's limitations.
He still belonged to the mortal realm.
How could he possibly neutralize Ding Yun's poison with internal energy?
Furthermore, whether his roaring could mask his fear depended on whether Ding Yun believed him. Before Zhao Xiaoyao had even roared twice, Ding Yun had appeared before him.
She then directly acupointed his vital points, and simultaneously acupointed the other three Innate realm cultivators nearby.
Without giving them any opportunity to speak.
She began to forcibly hypnotize Zhao Xiaoyao, hoping to ascertain the reason for the destruction of Divine Doctor Valley and which individuals were involved, so she could exact her revenge.