Mountain and sea lantern

Chapter 576 Positioning
The countless golden threads had been drawn back, bringing with them specks of white light that seeped into the coyote's corpse.

Soon, the coyote began to convulse, as if it were caught in a nightmare. It lay on its side on the ground, moving its limbs as if it were running in a dream. The speed of its limbs moving increased, and suddenly it opened its eyes, its eyeballs as if covered by a white film.

It tumbled to its feet, its limbs feeling uncoordinated with the weight on them. Its steps were stiff, and it staggered toward Shi Chun, baring its teeth and letting out a strange growl, clearly intending to attack Shi Chun.

Wu Jinliang, who was watching from the sidelines, chuckled and said, "So this is what they call resurrection. What's the point of this kind of resurrection?"

Shi Chun nodded and said, "There is indeed no need for resurrection."

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

Shi Chun: "It was difficult to arrive in time, so we agreed to meet again in half an hour."

After speaking, before his right eye's special ability disappeared, he looked around again.

After finding nothing abnormal, he sat down cross-legged to recover his energy.

It's possible that I used my right eye's special ability too frequently before, which depleted my blood and energy quite a bit. Under normal circumstances, it seems that no matter how much I rest, I can't restore my blood and energy to their previous abundance. Now, I feel a bit tired from using my right eye's special ability too much.

Wu Jinliang also sat down, playing with the gas-powered 'ice sheep' in his hand.

The woman in red on the rocky mountain seemed strange to the more one observed her. She repeatedly opened and closed her eyes, her open eyes revealing confusion, while her closed eyes appeared as if she were trapped in a nightmare. Her eyeballs under her eyelids twitched noticeably, as if she were struggling.

After a long while, once she understood, she slowly opened her eyes and muttered to herself, "It's not the underworld. Could I have sensed something wrong before?"

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

Even after she put away the flute and drank several more mouthfuls of wine, she still couldn't dispel her suspicions. For no other reason than that she had noticed Shi Chun reading a lot of books about the underworld when they were in the library.

Just now I suddenly realized that Shi Chun was in the underworld. Is this a coincidence?

The underworld has been sealed for so many years. Of all the coincidences, why does it have to happen to the underworld? Can this really be considered a coincidence?
If she could really enter and exit the underworld, which even she couldn't enter after the seal was broken, what would happen then?
After setting down the wine jar, he immediately decided to take matters into his own hands. With a flick of his sleeve, he created a rift in the air, and as if he were sucked into it, he vanished in an instant. The stone mountain remained, and the aroma of wine wafted through the breeze.

When he reappeared, he was still under the same starry sky, in the void, looking down at the vast earth, where the scars of the great battle on the ground were still visible in the night.

There was no one on the ground below. She closed her eyes to sense the situation, then opened them again to look at her feet, muttering to herself, "Underground?"

He landed on the ground, cast a spell to expand his domain, and personally investigated. He quickly detected the movements of Shi Chun and the other person deep underground.

She was quite puzzled by the lack of unusual behavior after observing for a long time.

A short while later, she suddenly turned her head and saw several figures sneaking towards her. They seemed to see her and then crouched down to observe her. She sensed who they were.

The eight people sent by her side to observe Shi Chun, although they set off first, were the ones who arrived first.

However, she had no direct contact with these people.

He immediately sent a telepathic message to Alan.

After receiving Alan's message, the eight men immediately used the location of the woman in red as the center point and went to four different locations to lie in ambush and observe...

"This is outrageous! Haven't these soul thieves been appearing a bit too frequently lately?"

"Something's not right. What kind of magic is this? The soul that entered the Divine Palace can actually pass through walls and escape invisibly. We can't stop it even if we watch it closely. It's too strange."

At Langdangchuan, the location where Shi Chun had previously appeared, a group of armored underworld figures were cursing and searching around.

Among them was an acquaintance of Shi Chun's, a dark-faced general named Lao Xi, who was also searching around, but was clearly more perfunctory.

The white-faced general was also there, but most of the armored figures had very fair skin, making the black-faced general's skin tone rather unique.

"Who goes there?" someone suddenly shouted.

Everyone turned around to look, and saw a figure flying over, landing not far from them.

The visitor was none other than Lao Changtai.

However, this attire was completely different from before. He was dressed in white like a ghost, with a white cloth draped over his head, giving him the look of someone in mourning.

"This person's presence here is suspicious, arrest him!" someone shouted, waving their hand.

Seeing this, Lao Changtai was a little confused and didn't know what was going on. He hadn't experienced anything like this last time he came in.

He wasn't a cultivator from the underworld, and his eyesight wasn't good in this light. He couldn't tell who it was for a moment and thought it was the leader who had brought some people in. He ended up bumping into them. If he had known it was these guys, he would have definitely avoided them first.

Upon seeing this, the dark-faced man in the crowd quickly stepped forward to dissuade him, "No, no, he's not a suspect, he's my friend. He came to see me. I told him I was busy here, and he specifically came over to meet me."

As he spoke, he took out a parent-child talisman and immediately entered and sent a message.

Lao Changtai reacted quickly, taking out the mother-child talisman and showing everyone the shimmering, ghostly characters on it. It read: Lao Xi is here.

Upon realizing that they were indeed acquaintances with whom they had a connection, the group of armored soldiers who were about to retaliate lowered their raised weapons.

"You all go ahead with your work, my friend has something to do, I'll talk to him first." The dark-faced general Lao Xili said to everyone, then turned around, waved to Lao Changtai, and went to the side.

After avoiding everyone's attention, Lao Changtai immediately took out a bill and stuffed it into Lao Xi's hand. It was a six-realm exchange bill with a face value of one thousand, and he said to express his gratitude, "Thank you for helping me out of this predicament, Brother Lao."

The two were able to get to know each other because of Shi Chun's matchmaking.

Seeing that Shi Chun was using a false name here, he and Chu Jingtang were also not using their real names. He was now called Lao Yuanchu, and Chu Jingtang was called Chu Anxiong.

Upon seeing the face value of the bill, Lao Xi couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, but he quickly pushed it away to politely refuse, saying, "What are you doing? We're brothers, it's just a small favor, no need to be so vulgar. There's plenty of time in the future."

Lao Changtai shoved it into his hand again, saying, "One thing at a time, you also need to bribe your superiors, don't you?"

"Since Brother Lao has said so, then I would be ashamed to refuse." Lao Xi was polite on the surface, but his face was beaming with joy. After looking around, he quickly put the money away, then leaned closer and asked in a low voice, "What's going on? Is it related to you again?"

Lao Changtai didn't tell the truth, "What's it related to? I don't even know anything about it."

Lao Xi thought to himself, "You're clearly in cahoots with the soul thieves, and you just happened to be at the crime scene. How can you say you don't know what's going on?" But the money he had just received was still fresh in his mind, so he quickly changed his tune and said, "That's right, you just arrived."

Lao Changtai then asked, "How long will this search take?"

He had arranged to meet the leader in half an hour. If his men continued to cause trouble here, the leader would definitely be discovered when he showed up.

Lao Xi patted the money in his pocket. "I'll go treat them to drinks now. Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

Lao Changtai was speechless. Was that what I meant?

But it's alright, since the other party is cooperating so well, he can finally rest assured.

The two sides had been dealing with each other for a while, and Lao Changtai knew this guy's character very well. He was really willing to take money and also really willing to do things. As long as the money was right, there was no problem with anything he could do.

Lao Xi told him to wait a moment, then immediately took the money and went to do his job.

The effect was immediate; in no time, a group of armored soldiers were seen retreating in a chaotic manner.

Lao Changtai, who tightened his headscarf with both hands, sighed and shook his head, then quietly went up the mountain to wait...

On the wasteland, a figure flashed by with incredible speed, arriving in an instant beside the woman in red. It was Alan.

After bowing, Alan reported, "Your Majesty, the Grand Pharmacist has confirmed it; it is indeed the Soul-Reversing Tree. The whereabouts of the two who took the Soul-Reversing Tree have also been found. They are two waiters at a tavern in Yaoshan City. After the two waiters arrived at the inn, suspicious individuals left. We have been keeping an eye on them, and it seems they are heading towards Xunmen to leave. We have already set up a full-scale net around that tavern; anyone suspicious will not escape."

"They spotted me so easily..." the woman in red muttered.

Alan was taken aback and tentatively asked, "Your Majesty, isn't it good?"

The woman in red said indifferently, "What I mean is, it's so easy to keep an eye on others, but why is it so difficult to keep an eye on Shi Chun? If I hadn't personally taken action this time, you probably wouldn't have been able to find even a trace of him."

Thinking about how she gave the ring to Shi Chun, she couldn't help but feel ashamed. It was the result of her actively sacrificing her looks, and she was too embarrassed to tell anyone. Fortunately, Fu Que wasn't a talkative person.

Alan hurriedly replied, "The demonic path is treacherous, Your Majesty is wise."

"The Soul-Reversing Tree..." the woman in red muttered, her thoughts already wandering. She pondered, "The only use of the Soul-Reversing Tree should be to refine the Death-Reversing Incense. It's such a rare item that even the Phoenix Clan can hardly obtain one. Where did he get it?"

Alan said, "The Grand Pharmacist asked the same question, saying that this item is almost extinct and asking me where I got it."

The woman in red lightly stamped her foot. "We'll have to ask the guy down there. He's got more and more secrets on him..." She frowned as she spoke. She had wanted to silence him because of the hugging and cuddling incident, but she couldn't just kill him now that she didn't know what was going on.

Li Hongjiu flashed through her mind. She absolutely could not live. The word "sister-in-law" still bothered her. What would happen if she saw her again in some future situation?
She had already decided that Li Hongjiu's death would be the day she left Dazhi City.

As for Dong Liangying losing his master, it doesn't matter. You can find another master. There are plenty of people with two legs. Why are you afraid of not finding a master?

Having learned from Li Hongjiu's experience, she planned to avoid Situ Gu when he came again, because Situ Gu was even more troublesome. He had been a guest of honor of hers, and the two knew each other.

The problem is that we don't know when Situ Gu will arrive; we can only ask Shi Chun about this.

"The guy underground?" Alan looked around at the empty space, realizing something, and tentatively asked, "Is the target underground?"

The woman in red said, "I'm hiding about two hundred feet underground."

Alan asked, puzzled, "Hiding so deep underground, what's there?"

"Heaven knows." The woman in red did not reveal the discovery about the underworld. For her, not everything was something that could be easily known to those around her. With a flick of her sleeve, she turned around and said, "Let's go. Be careful that no accomplices see us. Let's find another spot to keep watch."

The two of them slipped away.

Wu Jinliang, who had been secretly timing things underground, spoke up after a while, "Spring, half an hour has passed."

Shi Chun, who was sitting cross-legged, opened his eyes and stood up. At the same time, he also activated his right eye's special ability again to look around. In theory, he should be safe, but the situation of being surrounded by eight people from four directions had left him with a sense of unease.

It would have been better if I hadn't looked closely; once I did, my scalp tingled and my hair stood on end—I was surrounded again!
This time, there were ten people in five directions, who surrounded their own positions.

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

He would never believe that another coincidence could happen in this wasteland.

The question is, how exactly were they tracked down?

After testing, I believe my demonic cultivation technique should be able to shield me from the energy being tracked by the demonic eye.

Moreover, because of the psychological lingering effects of being surrounded before, they specifically ordered Xiao Sheng to guard the last stretch of their route and not leave. As long as someone passed by, they would be discovered sooner or later. However, the two of them did not receive any warning from Xiao Sheng.

Therefore, there are only two possibilities.

Either Xiao Sheng betrayed them and sold out this side.

Or it's because it was located and directly accessed.

A quick thought immediately ruled out the possibility of Xiao Sheng's betrayal, because Xiao Sheng didn't know their exact location either, so how could he possibly have surrounded them?

In other words, only one possibility remains.

What has located it?

This didn't happen before; the problem must have started after this trip to Dazhicheng.

The outsider this time was Li Hongjiu and the group from the library. Was it Li Hongjiu?
Looking around, he realized that the people surrounding him were demon cultivators. Demon cultivators?
His eyes showed surprise and doubt.

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

Shi Chun suddenly flipped his hand, producing a beautifully carved black ring, which he stared at with a solemn expression.

(End of this chapter)