Chapter 401: Chapter 386: Evil Ghost Chasing Soul! [Seeking Subscriptions]
"Ying’Er, I’m leaving now, so I must entrust the house to your care for the time being. If there’s an urgent matter requiring my decision, you can fly along this route and use the Spirit Rhinoceros Jade Pendant to leave a message for me."
"Also, I will send someone to deliver a message home for peace of mind every half a year. If you do not receive my message twice in a row, you can come find me directly."
On Red Tiger Mountain, Zhouyang, who had just returned to the clan less than half a month ago, was once again bidding farewell to his Dao Companion, Xiao Ying.
This time, leaving home, he was intending to fulfill the words he had once spoken to his father, Zhou Xuanhao, by personally searching for his foster mother, Zhou Xuan Yu, and foster sister, Zhou Yuan Yao, who had been missing for decades.
This was also a special last wish of Zhou Xuanhao before his death and the wish of the late old Clan Leader, Zhou Minghan.
Whether it was to fulfill the wishes of these two elders or to uncover the reasons behind the disappearance of these family members, Zhouyang was obligated both emotionally and rationally to find these two people.
So, after dealing with the matters that needed immediate attention, Zhouyang planned to spend several years searching throughout the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm for the missing Zhou Xuan Yu and her daughter.
"Zhou Lang, go with peace of mind. I’ll surely take good care of things at home, but you must also be cautious outside."
Having been together for many years, Xiao Ying understood that this matter had become a lingering concern for Zhouyang, and naturally, she wouldn’t stop him from pursuing it now.
"Then I’m off." Zhouyang looked at his Dao Companion, nodded slightly, and then left Red Tiger Mountain Oasis with a fifty-something-year-old mortal man.
The mortal man taken away by Zhouyang was named Zhou Hong, the grandson of Zhouyang’s seventh sister, Zhou Yuanchun, who in turn was the daughter of Zhou Xuan Yu.
Generationally speaking, Zhou Hong and Zhou Xuan Yu were three generations apart, which actually fell beyond the range of the Tier Four High-grade Spell, the Heaven- and Earth-Shaking Reunion Spell.
However, the person casting the spell to search for Zhou Xuan Yu and her daughter this time was not Zhouyang but Xu Song with Golden Core Stage cultivation, making the three-generation gap not a problem.
When a higher realm cultivation is used to cast a lower realm spell, the spell’s effect can be greatly enhanced.
A Nascent Soul Stage cultivator casting the Heaven- and Earth-Shaking Reunion Spell can track immediate blood relatives within ten generations; a Golden Core Stage cultivator casting this spell expands the range to within five generations.
Therefore, using Zhou Hong’s blood as the medium for casting the spell was not an issue.
Zhou Hong, a mere mortal, dared not defy the orders of the Supreme Elder, the highest-ranking figure in the clan.
Even though he had no idea what the Supreme Elder intended to do with his blood.
The existence of Zhou Xuan Yu was naturally something such a mortal could not be made aware of. Currently, the only ones in the Zhou family who knew about this were Zhouyang and his wife, and the siblings Zhou Guangxiang and Xiao Ying.
Finding someone obviously could not be done blindly.
Over the years, although the Zhou family had not found any trace of Zhou Xuan Yu and her daughter, they had discovered the last area of activity before their disappearance.
At that time, Zhou Yuan Yao only had Ninth-Layer Qi Cultivation, and even though Zhou Xuan Yu had Foundation Establishment Stage cultivation, she certainly would not have used Sword Flight with her daughter to conceal her identity and to train her daughter.
Under normal circumstances, they should not have gone far.
Therefore, when Zhouyang set out this time, he went straight to that region, collected a portion of Zhou Hong’s blood, and asked Xu Song to cast the spell.
Xu Song, being a Ghost Cultivator, had to remain hidden from Zhou Hong, so after collecting the blood, Zhouyang knocked him unconscious before watching Xu Song perform the spell.
Xu Song held a palmful of the blood collected from Zhou Hong as he chanted continuously, performing the magic.
A moment later, as he finished the ritual and waved his sleeve, the blood condensed into a Blood Sword that circled the unconscious Zhou Hong three times before dissipating directly!
"It’s not working; the mother and daughter you mentioned are not within the spell’s search range."
Actually, Zhouyang knew the situation upon seeing this without need for Xu Song’s explanation.
He himself had been tracked by the Chen Family Ancestor using this spell, so he understood its function well.
If the people being tracked were within the spell’s range, the Blood Sword would follow the sensing to trace; if not, it would dissipate automatically, causing the spell to fail.
Thus, upon witnessing this, he was not surprised and didn’t show any disappointment, only nodded and said, "With a Golden Core Stage elder’s cultivation, a single casting’s search range can reach at least ten thousand miles. Let’s then start by searching thirty thousand miles east!"
Using the ten-thousand-mile region where Zhou Xuan Yu and her daughter last disappeared as the center, searching thirty thousand miles in each direction of east, south, west, and north was Zhouyang’s preliminary plan.
This plan was by no means easy to accomplish. Without Xu Song, the Golden Core Stage cultivator’s help, if relying solely on Zhouyang himself—even if he could learn the Heaven- and Earth-Shaking Reunion Spell—he would at least need to spend ten years or more to complete the plan.
In the current circumstance, with Xu Song’s assistance, they completed the search of tens of thousands of miles eastward in just six months.
After two years, Zhouyang and Xu Song finished searching millions of miles in all four directions, yet they still found nothing!
"According to what you said, that mother and daughter are now in only two situations: either they have already left the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm or at least left the known Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm to you, or they are trapped in some Secret Realm with a Forbidden Array concealing the spell’s effect!"
Amidst the vast desert sea, Zhouyang and Xu Song paused atop a sand dune, contemplating the two years of futile and arduous searching with slightly grim faces.
"If it’s truly as Senior said, then I can only use the method mentioned by Senior. Should this method fail, Zhouyang would still be able to face his two elders in the afterlife!"
Zhouyang murmured to himself, his face darkened, and he raised his hand, retrieving a black wooden plaque.
This black wooden plaque is Zhou Xuan Yu’s soul token, containing a strand of Zhou Xuan Yu’s split soul. For years, the Zhou Family has relied on the intact soul token to determine Zhou Xuan Yu’s fate.
Now, since the ordinary "Heaven- and Earth-Shaking Reunion Spell" cannot locate Zhou Xuan Yu and her mother, Zhouyang can only try using more extreme measures to find them.
It’s known in the Cultivation Realm that various person-seeking secret techniques are abundant, beyond counting, and the "Heaven- and Earth-Shaking Reunion Spell" is merely a spell with the smallest requirements and the broadest applications.
When it comes to effectiveness, many secret techniques and divine techniques far surpass it.
The most evident was the Nether Crow used by the Beast Taming Sect to track Zhouyang, able to follow Zhouyang’s trail from hundreds of thousands of miles away, proving its potent tracking ability.
However, for person-seeking secret techniques and divine techniques like these, they usually require the target’s essence blood or divine soul as a medium to succeed. Generally, few cultivators would willingly give their essence blood or divine soul to another.
Now, the method Zhouyang intends to use is to ask Xu Song to utilize the strand of divine soul Zhou Xuan Yu left in the soul token as a medium, to perform the demonic secret technique "Evil Ghost Soul-Seeking Technique" to locate Zhou Xuan Yu.
Upon doing this, whether successful or not, Zhou Xuan Yu would permanently lose this strand of divine soul, and the Zhou Family would no longer be able to determine her life or death through the soul token.
"Since you’ve already made your decision, this old man will certainly assist you."
Xu Song glanced at the black wooden plaque in Zhouyang’s hand, extended his hand, drawing it into his own, and began his magical ritual.
Dozens of breaths later, he completed the ritual, waved his hand, and a ghostly face with green complexion and sharp teeth appeared abruptly, swallowing the black wooden plaque holding Zhou Xuan Yu’s strand of divine soul.
Yet, merely a strand of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator’s divine soul seemed insufficient to satisfy this ghostly face. After devouring the strand, the ghostly eyes, glinting with malice and ferocity, looked toward Xu Song, the caster.
But Xu Song seemed unfazed, immediately producing a black banner, waved it toward the ghostly face, and a dense Yin Qi beast soul was offered to the ghostly mouth as a sacrifice and devoured.
After devouring the sacrifice, the ghostly face seemed finally satisfied, immediately spat a stream of ghostly energy towards Xu Song, condensing into a ghostly face imprint on his palm.
Seeing this, Xu Song retracted the black banner artifact and then waved his hand towards Zhouyang, saying, "This imprint can exist for ten days. Within these ten days, we must find your foster mother’s whereabouts; otherwise, the imprint will dissipate automatically."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s depart quickly."
Zhouyang immediately waved his hand, releasing the "Illusory Cloud Ship," jumped onto it, and beckoned the mortal junior Zhou Hong aboard, following Xu Song’s guidance from the location.
Thus, they flew continuously for eight days, and as they flew over a sandy land, the ghostly face imprint suddenly departed from Xu Song’s hand, cackled eerily, and plunged into the sandy land below, quickly disappearing from their view.
"No mistake, it must be here."
The man and ghost in the sky exchanged glances, both revealing joy in their eyes.
Immediately, the man and ghost landed on the ground and began their underground exploration.
"It’s quite difficult; this old man can only discern that the array rank here is Tier Five Top Grade, but its origins and foundation are entirely unknown."
"If you wish to break the array to rescue someone, unless you can gather several Golden Core Stage cultivators for a forceful attack, we’ll have to wait until this old man researches the array’s weaknesses to aid you in rescuing the person."
Deep underground within a cavern, Zhouyang and Xu Song paused within, both looking somewhat grim.
It turned out that after following the ghostly face imprint deep underground, they indeed discovered a large underground ruin, but this ruin was protected by a formidable Tier Five Top Grade array. With their combined strength, they couldn’t break the grand array.
Without breaking the array, those trapped within the underground ruins, Zhou Xuan Yu and her daughter, couldn’t escape.
Upon hearing Xu Song’s words, Zhouyang’s face darkened, asking, "Then Elder Xu, how long do you estimate it will take to research the array’s weaknesses?"
"That’s hard to say; this old man was merely a Tier Five Middle Grade Array Master in life, whereas this array is Tier Five Top Grade. Given my capabilities, researching its weaknesses and breaking the array might take three to five years if I’m lucky, or even ten to twenty years if luck is poor!"
Xu Song shook his head repeatedly, understanding why Zhouyang asked this, and laid out the situation candidly.
As expected, upon hearing this, Zhouyang’s face turned even darker.
Zhou Xuan Yu is also a "Xuan" generation cultivator of the Zhou Family, only slightly younger than Zhou Xuanhao, achieving Foundation Establishment close to a century old.
If truly breaking the array takes ten or twenty years, they might find Zhou Xuan Yu already aged and dead inside once they break it.
Despite feeling grim, Zhouyang knew clearly that Xu Song had no reason to deceive him.
Moreover, being a Tier Five Array Master, Xu Song was his sole hope for breaking the array to rescue the person, leaving him no basis for blame.
Helpless, he could only grit his teeth and nod: "Then I must trouble Senior for everything. If Senior needs anything for breaking the array, you may ask Zhouyang, as long as it doesn’t involve killing and extracting souls."