Chapter 577: Positioning

Thin golden threads retracted, bringing back specks of white light that merged into the hyena's corpse.

Soon, the entire hyena began to convulse, as if caught in a nightmare. Lying on its side, its limbs twitched as if running in a dream, their movements accelerating rapidly. Suddenly, its eyes snapped open, its eyeballs appearing to be covered by a white film.

It scrambled to its feet, its limbs uncoordinated under its own weight. Its steps were stiff, and it swayed erratically as it charged towards Shi Chun, baring its teeth and emitting strange growls, clearly intending to attack him.

Wu Jinliang, observing from the side, chuckled, "So this is what they call resurrection. What’s the point of such a revival?"

Shi Chun nodded, "Indeed, there’s no need for this kind of resurrection."

Wu Jinliang immediately cast a spell, and surging waves of earth swallowed the resurrected hyena corpse deep underground. Only then did he ask, "What did Chu Jingting say?"

Shi Chun replied, "He can’t make it in time. We agreed to meet again in half an hour."

After speaking, before his right eye’s power faded, he surveyed his surroundings once more.

Finding nothing unusual, he sat down cross-legged to recover his vital energy.

Perhaps he had used his right eye’s power too frequently before, leading to a significant depletion of his vital energy. Under normal circumstances, no amount of rest seemed to restore his vital energy to its previous abundance. Now, excessive use of his right eye’s power made him feel quite fatigued.

Wu Jinliang also sat down, idly playing with the ‘Ice Ram’ that supplied air.

On the stone mountain, the woman in red, the more she sensed, the more something felt wrong. She repeatedly opened and closed her eyes; opening them revealed confusion, while closing them seemed to plunge her into a nightmare, her eyeballs visibly twitching beneath her lids as if in struggle.

After a long while, once she was sure of what she perceived, she slowly opened her eyes and murmured to herself, "It’s not the Underworld. Could I have sensed wrongly before?"

The doubt and confusion in her expression lingered for a long time.

Even after putting away her flute and taking several more gulps of wine, her suspicions remained. Not only because of that, but she had also noticed Shi Chun extensively reading books about the Underworld back at the library.

And just now, she suddenly perceived Shi Chun to be in the Underworld. Could this be a coincidence?

The Underworld has been sealed for so many years. Of all things to be a coincidence, for it to involve the Underworld itself, could that still be a coincidence?

If he could truly enter and exit the Underworld after it was sealed—a place even she couldn't enter—what would that imply?

After setting down the wine jar, she immediately decided to go herself. With a sudden sweep of her sleeve, she tore a rift in the void. As if drawn into it, she vanished instantly. The stone mountain remained, and the fragrant scent of wine drifted away on the breeze.

When she reappeared, she was still under the same starry sky, suspended in the void, gazing down at the vast land. Even in the darkness of night, the scars of the great battle on the ground were visible.

Seeing no figures on the ground below, she closed her eyes to sense, then opened them again and looked at her feet, muttering to herself, "Underground?"

She then descended to the ground, cast a spell to expand her domain, and personally investigated. Soon, she detected the movements of Shi Chun and the other person deep underground.

Observing them for a long time without any unusual activity left her quite perplexed.

Not long after, she suddenly turned her head and vaguely saw several figures stealthily approaching. They seemed to spot her, then quickly lay prone to observe. Through her senses, she already knew who these approaching people were.

They were her own people, the eight individuals sent to observe Shi Chun. Although they had set out earlier, she had arrived first.

However, she had no direct contact with them.

She immediately sent a telepathic message to Alan.

Upon receiving Alan's message, the eight people immediately positioned themselves in four different directions, using the woman in red's location as the center, to lie in wait and observe.

"This soul thief is too brazen! Hasn't he been appearing a bit too frequently lately?"

"No, wait. What kind of spell is this? Souls that enter the divine mansion can actually slip away invisibly through walls? We watched helplessly, unable to stop them. It's too sinister."

In Langdang River, the location where Shi Chun had appeared before, a group of Underworld soldiers in armor were cursing and searching everywhere.

Among them was an acquaintance of Shi Chun, the dark-faced general named Ping Xi, who was also searching, but clearly much more perfunctorily.

The other light-faced general was also there. However, most of these armored individuals had very fair skin, making the dark-faced general's complexion seem rather unique.

"Who's there?" someone suddenly shouted.

Everyone turned to look, only to see a figure flying swiftly towards them, landing not far away at the sound of the shout.

The newcomer was none other than Lao Changtai.

However, his attire was completely different from before; he wore a white robe, like a ghost, and a white cloth draped over his head, resembling mourning clothes in the human world.

"This person appearing here is definitely suspicious. Arrest him!" someone shouted, waving a hand.

Seeing this, Lao Changtai was somewhat bewildered, unable to grasp what was happening. He hadn't experienced anything like this during his previous visit.

He wasn't an Underworld cultivator, and his vision was poor in this light, so he couldn't clearly make out who they were. He thought the boss had brought someone in and he had stumbled upon them. If he had known it was these guys, he would definitely have avoided them first.

The dark-faced general among the crowd quickly stepped forward to interject, "No, no, he’s not a suspect. He's my friend, here to find me. I told him I was busy here, so he specifically came over to meet."

As he spoke, he pulled out a parent-child talisman, immediately inputting and sending a message.

Lao Changtai was quick to react as well, promptly taking out his own parent-child talisman and showing the shimmering, ethereal writing on it to the crowd. It read: 'Liao Xi is here.'

Seeing that he was indeed a connected acquaintance, the group of armored soldiers, who had been about to act, lowered their raised weapons.

"You all carry on with your work. My friend has something important, so I'll talk to him first." The dark-faced general, Liao Xi, waved off the others, then turned and gestured for Lao Changtai to come aside.

Once out of earshot, Lao Changtai immediately pulled out a ticket and slipped it into Liao Xi’s hand. It was a Six Realms universal currency ticket worth a thousand, and he expressed his gratitude, saying, "Thank you, Brother Liao, for helping me out of that situation."

Their acquaintance, of course, was due to Shi Chun's earlier mediation.

Since Shi Chun was using an alias here, he and Chu Jingting also used false names. He was now known as Lao Yuanchu, and Chu Jingting was Chu Anxiong.

Seeing the ticket's denomination, Liao Xi couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, yet he quickly pushed it back, politely refusing. "What are you doing? We're brothers, it was just a small favor. No need for such vulgarity. There'll be plenty of opportunities in the future, plenty of opportunities."

Lao Changtai insisted on pressing it into his hand. "Business is business. Don't you have people to grease palms with?"

"Since Brother Lao puts it that way, it would be rude of me to refuse, though I feel undeserving." Liao Xi spoke politely, but his face was beaming. After glancing left and right, he quickly put the ticket away, then leaned closer and whispered, "What's going on? Is it related to you guys again?"

Lao Changtai didn't tell the truth. "Related to what? I don't even know what you're talking about."

Liao Xi inwardly grumbled at this. 'You're clearly with the soul thief, and you just happened to appear at the scene of the crime. And you claim you don't know what's going on?'

However, the money he had just received was still warm, so he immediately changed his tone. "Right, you just arrived."

Lao Changtai then asked, "How long are they going to keep searching?"

He had agreed to meet the boss in half an hour. If the troops kept causing a commotion here, the boss would surely be discovered when he appeared.

Ping Xi patted the ticket in his pocket. "I'll go invite them for drinks right now. Don't worry, they'll clear out quickly."

Lao Changtai was speechless. 'Is that what I meant?'

Still, it was good. Since the other party was so cooperative, he was truly relieved.

It wasn't their first day dealing with each other. Lao Changtai knew this guy's character well: he truly dared to take the money and truly dared to get things done. As long as the money was in place, anything he could do was not a problem.

Ping Xi told him to wait a moment, then immediately took the money and went to handle the matter.

The effect was immediate. Before long, a group of armored soldiers clattered away.

Lao Changtai, tightening the cloth on his head with both hands, sighed and shook his head. Then he quietly secluded himself on the mountain to wait...

On the wilderness, a figure flashed past at an incredible speed, arriving in an instant and landing beside the woman in red. It was Alan.

After saluting, Alan reported, "Your Highness, the Grand Alchemist has confirmed it; it is indeed the Soul Reversal Tree. The whereabouts of the two individuals who took the Soul Reversal Tree have also been traced: they are two waiters from a tavern in Yaoshan City. After those two waiters arrived at the inn, suspicious individuals departed, and they have been put under surveillance. Their direction seems to indicate they intend to leave through the Xun Gate. A comprehensive network has been laid around that tavern; no suspicious person will escape."

"So easily traced..." the woman in red muttered.

Alan was taken aback and tentatively asked, "Your Highness, is that not good?"

The woman in red said indifferently, "My point is, if it's so easy to track others, why is it so difficult to track Shi Chun? If I hadn't personally intervened this time, you probably wouldn't even find his shadow."

Thinking of the circumstances when she gave the ring to Shi Chun, she couldn't help but inwardly grumble. This was the result of her actively sacrificing her allure, something she couldn't even openly speak about. Fortunately, that fellow Fu Que wasn't a talkative person.

Alan quickly said, "Demonic cultivators are cunning, Your Highness is wise."

"Soul Reversal Tree..." the woman in red murmured, her thoughts already shifted. She pondered, "The only purpose of the Soul Reversal Tree should be for refining the Death-Defying Incense. It's an artifact so rare that even the Phoenix clan rarely encounters one. Where did he get it?"

Alan replied, "The Grand Alchemist also asked the same thing, saying this item is almost extinct, and asked me where I acquired it."

The woman in red lightly stamped her foot. "Then we'll have to ask the fellow underground. The secrets this guy harbors are truly growing...". She even frowned as she spoke, because of the embracing incident, she had wanted to silence him. But if things weren't clarified now, how could she easily silence him?

Li Hongjiu flashed through her mind; he absolutely couldn't be allowed to live. That single call of 'sister-in-law' still bothered her immensely. If she were to encounter him again in any setting in the future, what then?

She had already decided: when Li Hongjiu left Dazhi City, that would be his death date.

As for Dong Liangying losing his master, it didn't matter. Masters could be replaced; there were plenty of people with two legs, so why fear not finding another master?

With Li Hongjiu as a precedent, if Situ Gu were to come again, she intended to avoid him. Situ Gu was even more troublesome; he had once been her honored guest, and they knew each other.

The problem was she didn't know when Situ Gu would arrive. This was something she could only ask Shi Chun about.

"The fellow underground?" Alan looked at the empty surroundings, realizing something, and tentatively asked, "Is the target underground?"

The woman in red: "Hiding about two hundred zhang underground."

Alan was puzzled. "Hiding so deep? Is there anything special deep underground?"

"Heaven knows." The woman in red did not reveal her discovery about the Underworld. For her, not everything could be easily shared with those around her. She swept her sleeve and turned. "Let's go. We need to move our surveillance location to prevent his accomplices from seeing us."

The two figures flashed away.

Underground, Wu Jinliang, who had been secretly timing, spoke up after waiting for a while, "Chun Tian, half an hour is up."

Shi Chun, who had been meditating cross-legged, opened his eyes. As he stood up, he activated his right eye’s power again to survey his surroundings. Logically, it should have been safe, but the previous incident of being surrounded by eight people from four directions had left a lingering sense of unease in his mind.

As it turned out, it would have been better if he hadn't looked. The moment he did, his scalp tingled, his hair stood on end, and he realized he was surrounded again!

This time, there were ten people from five directions, surrounding his location once more.

If the first time was a coincidence, what about this time?

For it to be another coincidence in this wilderness, he wouldn't believe it even if he were beaten to death.

But the question was, how were they tracked?

After testing, the demonic cultivation he practiced should have been able to shield his aura from being tracked by demonic eyes.

Moreover, because of his lingering unease from the previous encirclement, he had specifically instructed Xiao Sheng to remain at the last part of their travel route, guarding it without retreating. Anyone passing by, regardless of when, would have been discovered. Yet, he and Wu Jinliang had received no alerts from Xiao Sheng.

Thus, there were only two possibilities.

Either Xiao Sheng had betrayed them and sold them out.

Or they had been pinpointed and directly located.

A quick thought immediately ruled out Xiao Sheng's betrayal, as Xiao Sheng didn't know their exact current location. How could he have possibly led people to surround them perfectly?

This meant only one possibility remained.

They were being located by something?

This hadn't happened before. The problem must have arisen after their trip to Dazhi City.

The outsiders they had contacted this time were Li Hongjiu and the library group. Was it Li Hongjiu?

Looking around again, the people surrounding him were demon cultivators. Demon cultivators?

His eyes showed shock and suspicion.

Wu Jinliang noticed his unusual reaction and asked, "What's wrong?"

Shi Chun, however, suddenly flipped his hand, and a beautifully carved black ring appeared between his fingers. He stared at it with a grave expression.