Han Li paused, quickly turning back to look.

Behind the red characters, a faint golden line of small characters vaguely appeared, written in golden seal script:

"White Sparrow Valley, Manifest True Wheel."

The six characters all seemed shrouded in a layer of blurred golden light, making them difficult to see clearly.

After only a moment of looking, Han Li felt a dryness in his eyes. He quickly rubbed them and looked again, only to find the space behind the red characters completely empty, without a single word.

A thought stirred in his mind, and he quickly glanced around. He saw everyone around him intently staring at the stone wall, occasionally whispering to each other. Everyone's expression was normal, clearly indicating they hadn't seen the strange scene he had just witnessed.

"White Sparrow Valley... what kind of place is that?"

The three words echoed in Han Li's mind, but he couldn't recall such a place existing within the Candle Dragon Path.

Han Li's thoughts raced, and he tried different angles and methods, wanting to glean some clues from the red characters on the stone wall again, but he found nothing unusual.

It was as if the six faint golden characters had been conjured from his imagination, never existing in the first place.

But he knew in his heart that, though it was just a fleeting glimpse, his eyesight was such that there was no way he could have been mistaken.

With this in mind, a sliver of hope naturally arose within him.

No matter what, he needed to explore this so-called "White Sparrow Valley" to satisfy his curiosity. Otherwise, he would never be at peace.

But where exactly was this place?

After standing there for a long time, Han Li walked to a corner on his own, flipped his hand, and took out the map of the Bell Toll Mountain Range he had received upon joining the sect. He immersed his divine sense within it, carefully searching every inch.

This search alone lasted a full hour.

Han Li opened his eyes, flicked his wrist, and put away the map. The look of confusion on his face only deepened.

He had scanned almost every place name on the map back and forth several times, confirming that he hadn't missed anything, but he still couldn't find any place called "White Sparrow Valley."

"Could it be some unknown secret realm within the sect?" Han Li's eyes flickered as he muttered to himself.

With this thought in mind, he walked back to the stone wall, stared at it for a long while, and then turned and left the Tai Xuan Hall.

A moment later, his figure hovered in the void outside the Tai Xuan Hall, his hands clasped behind his back, his blue robe fluttering in the wind. A thoughtful expression on his face, he activated his escape technique and sped off in a certain direction.

...

Night. Inside a secret chamber within a cave dwelling atop Crimson Cloud Peak.

A blue ancient lamp sat on a vermilion-lacquered Eight Immortals square table. An unknown oil burned within the lamp, producing no smoke but instead emitting wisps of delicate fragrance.

The flame at the wick was exceptionally stable, without the slightest flicker. Although it seemed only the size of a thumb, it illuminated the entire room as brightly as day.

On the table, several thick, green-covered ancient books were piled in a corner, with three or four jade slips placed beside them. A seven-foot-long yellow scroll lay draped over the edge of the table, half rolled up and half trailing on the floor.

The scroll depicted lifelike green mountain peaks in meticulous ink and brushstrokes, with small square characters labeling the names of these peaks, creating an exquisite map of the mountains and rivers.

Han Li was currently sitting behind the square table, holding a somewhat tattered and yellowed ancient book, intently reading it.

These jade slips, books, and scrolls were all records of the mountains and waters of the Bell Toll Mountain Range, borrowed from the "Inner Canon Pavilion" of the Dragon Riding Peak earlier today.

Apart from the jade slips, these books and scrolls were all unique copies. Normally, they could be copied and purchased, but in order to examine the most original map records, he had spent more merit points than it would have cost to buy them, borrowing these original ancient texts that were of unknown age.

Han Li hadn't overlooked a single detail, carefully examining all the text records and drawings. However, until now, he hadn't been able to find any mountain valley named White Sparrow.

While there were several places with names that were similar, they were mostly places that clearly couldn't be important sect locations.

His search was focused on the black areas he had seen in the Ink Spirit Mountain and River Diagram. These places were mostly sect forbidden areas, not marked on most maps, but often mentioned in some written records.

After cross-referencing them, he regrettably found that none of them mentioned White Sparrow Valley.

At this moment, the book he was holding, the *Ancient Cloud Chronicle*, was the last of all the texts.

In fact, this book could hardly be considered a geographical gazetteer. It was a travelogue recording the scenery of the Ancient Cloud Continent, written by a frustrated cultivator who had failed in his cultivation.

However, this book seemed to have been written very early, perhaps as early as the founding of the Candle Dragon Path, and so a layer of restrictive array was attached to the book.

Once the array was removed, the pages would immediately decay into smoke.

Han Li gently picked up a page and flipped it back, his eyes scanning up and down the recorded text.

Suddenly, his brow furrowed, and he pulled the ancient book closer, staring intently at a passage of text.

"West Mountain has a valley, where white sparrows are born in flocks. Once, a shepherd boy chased a sparrow into the valley, but saw no valley, only a palace and jade pavilions in the misty aura. High platforms stood hidden, with Chang'e dancing and immortals drinking, bewildered and not knowing where he was..."

Han Li looked at this extremely short travelogue, pondering in silence. The second half of the story described how the shepherd boy was struck by a golden-armored god with a whip. He suddenly awoke to find himself still standing in the valley, as if in a dream.

The scene described in this travelogue was quite common in secular tales of the strange and bizarre, often referred to as a mirage, and not considered anything particularly strange or unusual. Only the mention of white sparrows born in flocks caught his attention.

During his previous search, he had seen references to white orioles, snow pheasants, plain kites, and so on, but never white sparrows. This was the first time he had encountered them.

Afterward, he continued to carefully read through the rest of the travelogue, and finally confirmed that this was the only place in all the books that explicitly mentioned the two words "white sparrow."

"Where exactly is this West Mountain..." Han Li held the ancient book in one hand and gently tapped the table with the other, falling into thought.

After a moment, he suddenly stopped tapping, and took all the basic green-covered ancient books from the table, flipping each one to a certain page and spreading them out on the table.

Han Li pointed to one of the pages, murmuring: "West of You Mountain, seven thousand two hundred and fifty-seven zhang high, long and narrow, running from south to north. The sunny slopes grow Lu Yang grass and Sun Washing flowers, producing warp phosphorus stone..."

"West Spring Mountain, eight thousand nine hundred and thirty-one zhang high..."

"West of Ze Peak, six..."

...

The moon waned in the west, and soon it was late into the night.

Han Li, who had been sitting behind the square table, stood up, stretched, gently closed the ancient books on the table, and neatly stacked them in a corner.

The only thing still open on the table was the scroll of the mountain and river topography map.

However, only a foot or so of the map was unfurled, showing a mountain peak called West Forest Peak.

This peak was located in the western part of the Bell Toll Mountain Range, an ordinary mountain peak with no obvious spiritual energy. Because it had no particularly rare spiritual products, it had been abandoned and no elders or disciples had chosen to reside there.

Its western side was close to the Buling Valley, and its eastern side faced a branch mountain range of the Bell Toll Mountain Range, with a wide crescent-shaped valley sandwiched in between.

This mountain was the West Mountain that Han Li had selected after comparing various sources.

He believed that the crescent-shaped valley called Half-Khmer Valley was very likely the White Sparrow Valley he was looking for.

Han Li lightly stroked the table, and the flame of the ancient lamp on the Eight Immortals table flickered slightly and went out.

Above the wick, a wisp of white smoke rose slowly, emitting a faint fragrance that lingered for a long time.

Han Li left the room, closed the door, and walked straight to the front courtyard. But before he could walk out of the hall, he saw Meng Qianqian running quickly from the veranda.

"Elder Li, it's coming out, it's coming out..." Before she got close, she saw Han Li's figure and quickly called out.

Han Li frowned slightly upon hearing this, then raised his eyebrows, a look of joy on his face.

"Let's go see."

As he said this, he stepped forward, took Meng Qianqian's arm, and the two of them turned into a streak of blue light, disappearing from the spot in the blink of an eye.

A moment later, the two figures appeared in a stone chamber within the cave dwelling.

In the stone chamber, the small spirit-gathering formation was still running, with constant flashes of green light.

A white giant egg stood in the center of the formation, constantly absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gathered by the formation, gently shaking.

As a result, Han Li and Meng Qianqian stared at the giant egg for a full quarter of an hour, but saw no sign of it hatching.

"Just now it was shaking very violently, and there were occasional knocking sounds inside the shell. I thought it was about to hatch, so I rushed to notify the Elder..." Meng Qianqian said with some embarrassment as she looked at the scene in front of her.

Han Li stared at the giant egg, examining it closely, and discovered that there was a very subtle ring of cracks at the bottom of the eggshell, which was impossible to see without careful observation.

"It has already hatched, but it was afraid after not seeing its mother after being born, so it hid back inside." After a long while, Han Li shook his head and said.

After saying this, he thought for a moment, flipped his hand, and a long, shimmering feather appeared in his palm, which he handed to Meng Qianqian.

Meng Qianqian took the feather, somewhat puzzled, and stared blankly at Han Li.

"Go and call the little thing out." Han Li said with a smile.

Meng Qianqian nodded, blinked her long eyelashes a few times, and walked up hesitantly, reaching out and gently knocking on the giant egg.

The giant egg still had no reaction.

After hesitating slightly, Meng Qianqian used the feather in her hand to gently stroke the surface of the eggshell.

This time, the giant egg seemed to sense something. It paused first, then gently shook again, but the amplitude was much smaller than before.

Meng Qianqian's beautiful eyes lit up. While gently stroking the surface of the eggshell with the feather in her hand, she also reached out a palm and gently stroked it as well.

The giant egg suddenly gradually stopped shaking, and just stood there quietly, without moving.