The Lord of Void and Real-Chapter 1551 - 1547: Lurking

Near the black mist below, as Tao Xiang continuously casts spells, the bulge on the black mist prohibition grows larger and larger.

"Bang" "Bang"...

Accompanied by a series of deafening sounds, the black mist Array finally bursts open, scattering a large part of the thick black foggy region.

A column of starlight shot from the Gu Xuan star disk makes a "pfft" sound, piercing through the remaining black mist, creating a gap several meters in size, vaguely revealing the situation inside.

A fierce gale scatters in all directions, blowing Tao Xiang and others askew, rendering them unstable in their stance.

At this moment, an almost imperceptible silver shadow appears at the gap, swiftly entering into it with a "swoosh".

A pink glow flickers over Tao Xiang’s body, immediately stabilizing her form; her fingers flick slightly, cloaking the broken gap with an invisible starlight.

"The Formation has been opened, let’s go inside." She tells Yan Lie and the others, taking Liu Hong, Li Biao as the first ones to fly in.

The others, not wanting to lag behind, also move in swiftly via flying escape technique, appearing over a giant island.

"Ah, so behind the black mist is an island." Wanshui Zhenren thought to himself internally, as the others also look around attentively.

Seeing everyone has entered, Tao Xiang forms a hand seal, the starlight on the Gu Xuan star disk flickers and disappears.

Without the power of the star disk to maintain it, the gap on the black mist prohibition closes rapidly, completely disappearing within a few breaths.

Tao Xiang’s eyebrows slightly furrow; right after she opened the gap, she immediately laid down the power of the Gu Xuan star disk meant to react to any escape technique crossing it, yet aside from the seven of them, the star disk’s power detected no other presence.

"Could it really have been my imagination, with no one else lurking around?" she thought to herself.

Wanshui Zhenren and Yan Lie, seeing the situation below, fly off without a word, disappearing into the distance in the blink of an eye.

"I shall take my leave now too," said Tian Sanqi, also flying off in another direction.

The Ghost Teng Master did the same, turning into a gray cloud of smoke, disappearing from the spot.

Tao Xiang didn’t mind; both groups had already found predecessors’ cave mansions in the Celestial Secret Realm, not just one or two. In such places known to contain treasured items, despite the imminent dangers, everyone still chose to act alone.

Tao Xiang swings her sleeve sending out a pink glow, wrapping up Liu Hong and Li Biao, flying deeper into the island.

A silver light flashes in a concealed place on the island below; the Divine Rat manifests out of thin air, spitting out a dark red round mirror, which is the Free and Easy Mirror.

A flicker of light from the mirror’s surface, and Shen Luo’s figure emerges from it, still wearing the Soft Smoke Luo Brocade Clothing, taking no chances.

"Not bad." He pats the Divine Rat’s small head, rewarding it with a Refining Beast Pill and then takes the Free and Easy Mirror.

This is the method Shen Luo thought of in the past three years, to sever his own connection with the Free and Easy Mirror by allowing the Divine Rat to refine it.

In this way, he can enter the Free and Easy Mirror himself, and as the Divine Rat swallows the mirror, it can carry him along to perform spatial escape techniques, smoothly passing through most prohibitions.

The Divine Rat, not highly intelligent, does not care about the numerous treasures he placed inside the Free and Easy Mirror; moreover, through controlling the Divine Rat’s Spiritual Communication Seal, he can manipulate its mana to continue using the Free and Easy Mirror without missing a beat.

"Smart move, otherwise you would have been discovered by that Tao Xiang by now," says the voice of Fire Spirit Child.

Shen Luo glanced at the mid-air briefly without uttering a word, then turned his head to his right hand side—toward where the Ghost Teng Master had departed.

Back at the Tianji City Trading Conference, he had wanted to capture this man but due to a series of events, he missed the chance. Now having encountered him again, he did not wish to wait any longer and had to capture him immediately to ascertain what had happened to Xie Yuxin that year.

"I want to capture that Ghost Teng Master and inquire about some matters. However, the island is not very large and the noise from fighting might draw the attention of others. Do you have any way to shield us?" Shen Luo communicated telepathically with the Fire Spirit Child.

"Your idea is good, as the cultivation level of the Ghost Teng Master is the weakest among these people. Capturing him could help us understand the experiences of Wanshui Zhenren and the others in recent years. As for the issue of noise, don’t worry, I will set up a prohibition to shield everything," Fire Spirit Child responded.

Shen Luo saw that Fire Spirit Child had misunderstood his meaning, but he did not clarify, transforming into an invisible escape light heading toward where the Ghost Teng Master was.

Divine Rat, having finished eating the Refining Beast Pill, had gone ahead to track the Ghost Teng Master, although the divine sense mark he had left there had faded away after three years.

As he flew, he also looked around the surrounding islands.

Due to the black mist prohibition, the island was dimly lit, but this naturally did not affect Shen Luo and the others.

The island was very desolate with sparse green vegetation, its landscape mostly desolate Gobi, scattered with some black stone fragments.

The center of the island had more greenery, with several not-so-low mountains, looking more densely forested.

Shen Luo frowned slightly, this island was too barren, unlikely any elder or high person would want to have their tomb placed here.

He then shook his head, no longer considering these, and focused on chasing the Ghost Teng Master.

Soon, he arrived at a desolate mountain in the northwest of the island, traced by the Divine Rat; the Ghost Teng Master was hiding in the mountain, having established a temporary cave mansion, apparently refining something.

"Perfect," Shen Luo was silently pleased, telepathically instructing Fire Spirit Child to set up a prohibition to isolate their breaths.

Fire Spirit Child emerged from the Carefree Mirror, waved his hand, and a black stone stele appeared above the desolate mountain—the Array Stele for the Spirit Refining Array.

The stele spun rapidly, spreading countless black formation patterns, which quickly formed a huge hemispherical protective cover, enveloping the entire mountain.

"Now you can even turn the place upside down inside without the outside sensing a trace," Fire Spirit Child stated, simultaneously forming a gesture.

The huge protective cover slightly fluctuated, merging into the void and disappearing.

"Has Cai Zhu stopped cultivating?" Shen Luo did not show surprise at Fire Spirit Child’s action of initiating the array, having thoroughly researched the Spirit Refining Array more than two years ago.

However, the fact that Fire Spirit Child brought out the Array Tools of the Spirit Refining Array meant that Nie Cai Zhu had paused her breakthrough attempt.

"Ah, the attempt failed. But she used up most of her mana operating the Spirit Refining Array and is now recovering," Fire Spirit Child sighed lightly.

Shen Luo nodded, no longer focused on that situation, and transformed into a shadow merging into the mountain toward the temporary cave mansion excavated by the Ghost Teng Master.

In the center of the desolate mountain, the Ghost Teng Master had developed a cave mansion and had carelessly set up two prohibitions, mediocre at best. However, hanging above the top of the cave mansion was a gray-white banner, emitting circles of gray-white light, enveloping the entire cave mansion.

Inside the cave mansion, the Ghost Teng Master was sitting cross-legged. In front of him was a black jade coffin with a dried-up, tall body lying inside, dressed in ancient, decayed armor.

Though already perished, the tall body still emitted an unusually strong aura.

Excitement filled Ghost Teng Master’s face; this body was found in a previous elder’s cave mansion, must have been a Taiyi stage expert before death, and still retained much of its strength.

His cultivation was the method of corpse refinement, and a powerful body was immensely helpful to him.