Chapter 781: Finding Traces
The true mission they had been assigned to do was to locate the experts of the Spirit Abundance World who had been hiding in the region. Finding cultivation resources was something they did along the way as an added benefit.
In the year that passed, they managed to move pretty quickly through the meteorite belt and complete their investigation over a vast space.
As they made their way through the asteroid belt, they concealed their aura the best they could. Other than the trace they left behind to tell their companions where they were, it wasn’t quite possible for anyone else to detect their presence.
Unfortunately, throughout their year of duty, Shang Xia and the others didn’t run into anyone from the Spirit Abundance World. They didn’t even find traces of one.
They would feel disappointed if things were like before, but after listening to the experience of those who patrolled the region before them, all of them were prepared to face something similar. As such, they were able to remain relatively calm.
“Hey! A year passed just like that!”
“I wonder if we will be able to achieve anything in our 3 years of service...”
“It’s hard to say. Even though we’re being careful, it’s hard to say if they would pass through places we looked through before.”
“It’s not as though we didn’t leave anything in the places we passed... Whatever it is, we just have to do our best.”
“...”
The 5 of them would transmit their voices to each other for a chat every once in a while. There were times when they would simply stop patrolling for some time to gather for a chat. They would discuss their thoughts and even confirm some of their philosophies of cultivation.
For experts at their level, they might already have formed a set thinking for their path of cultivation and it wouldn’t change easily, but they could always gain inspiration from somewhere else to improve themselves. Doing so would allow them to widen the path they could take in the future without shaking their current foundations and possibly allow their future cultivation to be a little smoother.
It was then that Shang Xia understood that the 4 of them before him weren’t ordinary experts either.
Due to his unique cultivation method, Shang Xia was able to save a lot of time during the recovery process and spend it on his cultivation. Because of that, he completed the refinement of his fourth set of fate dipper essences and made some progress in his cultivation.
The others might not have as much time as him to cultivate as they needed to restore their energy, but they managed to improve to a certain extent too!
When they released their aura, Shang Xia could tell that all of them grew stronger. When they concealed their aura, even Shang Xia was finding it difficult to see through them.
One could see how strongly they were affected if they worked so hard on their cultivation after their initial meeting back then. The shock Shang Xia brought them was simply too large and they tried their hardest to catch up.
Other than that, Shang Xia suspected that Pang Jingyun and Yi Jingzi might have already completed their refinement of their second fate dipper and could control it perfectly. They should be able to split off a Fate Dipper Clone, but Shang Xia wasn’t sure of the second part.
Shen Baisong and Gong Xinlan might not have reached that stage, but their strength increased considerably.
In the blink of an eye, another half a year passed. Ever since Shang Xia completed the refinement of his fourth set of fate dipper essences, he was unable to raise his cultivation any further. He placed his attention on his rank five secret art and martial arts.
As his cultivation couldn’t increase any further, improving his martial arts was the only way for him to raise his combat abilities at the moment.
Shang Xia thought of a way to progress some time ago, but since he obtained his Five Element Ring, the entire process could be accelerated.
One fine day, when Shang Xia was carefully examining an asteroid that was close to 3000 feet wide, he felt a special spatial fluctuation from the distance.
Surprised, Shang Xia realized that it was the signal they decided on before, but it was the first time he had felt it in over a year.
He didn’t dare to dally as he concealed his aura the best he could before disappearing from his position.
After traveling close to 1000 miles to his left, he noticed Shen Baisong’s figure flickering unsteadily. He stared at a tiny asteroid in the distance with a serious expression.
Shang Xia was the first to arrive, and he quickly stepped out from the void. He asked immediately, “What’s happening here?”
Turning his head to look at Shang Xia, Shen Baisong muttered, “There’s something strange about that place. I discovered an asteroid that had its marking destroyed!”
Shang Xia glanced at the region of shattered rocks and realized that all the pieces came from a giant asteroid that had been destroyed.
Soon after, the void beside Shang Xia trembled as Pang Jingyun appeared.
The moment he saw Shen Baisong’s flickering figure, he gasped, “You managed to create a Fate Dipper Clone too?”
Shang Xia wasn’t surprised. He could tell that the Shen Baisong in the distance was a mere Fate Dipper Clone the moment he appeared.
Shen Baisong repeated everything once more before he continued, “I rushed over the moment I felt the destroyed marking. There are minute spatula fluctuations happening all around the central region of the destruction.”
By the time he had spoken, Yi Jingzi and Gong Xinlan also arrived. The 5 of them were positioned in a way they could deploy their battle formation in case anything happened.
Pang Jingyun’s gaze swept across Shen Baisong’s clone before looking in the vicinity of the destruction before asking, “Where is your true body right now? Have you entered the region of destruction?”
“You have to be careful. If that region is where the expert of the Spirit Abundance World chose to hide, he will definitely place restrictions or other means of protection around. You need to be wary of walking into a trap.” Yi Jingzi reminded.
Gong Xinlan frowned and muttered curiously, “Why didn’t you send your Fate Dipper Cone in there to take a look? Wouldn’t it be more dangerous to head in with your true body?”
Shen Baisong’s clone merely laughed without saying anything more.
Soon after, Yi Jingzi muttered in realization, “Brother Shen, you should have just created your Fate Dipper Clone and it doesn’t possess strong combat abilities. It might not even be comparable to a newly ascended Martial Dipper Realm expert.”
A figure rose rapidly not too far away from the region of destruction and he didn’t conceal himself. He flew over to meet up with the others. It was none other than Shen Baisong’s true body.”
If he didn’t appear voluntarily, no one would realize that he was actually hiding within one of the broken-off chunks of rock flying through the region of destruction.
Shen Baisong actually blended in with his surroundings in order to conceal himself, and he managed to do so pretty flawlessly.
By the time he arrived before the others, the Fate Dipper Clone he created returned and fused back into him.
Shang Xia asked immediately, “Did you see anyone inside?”
“It seems like a temporary gathering spot they forsaken. Of course, it might be one of the safe spots they designated for their operation. There were many restrictions to ensure that the shattered rocks would fly away and I wasn’t confident of destroying those restrictions without leaving a trace.” Shen Baisong nodded slightly in response.
Shen Baisong possessed some sort of secret art that could allow him to discover people’s presence even through restrictions.
Even though it wasn’t exactly the best secret art they could find and it possessed lots of weaknesses as it couldn’t accurately determine the situation within the pile of destruction, it was enough for an initial assessment of the situation.
After thinking about it and reaching the conclusion that there was nothing else they should pay attention to, everyone split up again.
This time, they acted even more cautiously. There was also a trace of excitement buzzing in their minds.
At the end of the day, they had been patrolling for a year or so. They were starting to get anxious that they hadn't discovered anything.
They might have found several rare treasures within the asteroid belt and interacted with each other to entertain themselves. But their mission was to locate the remnant experts of the Spirit Abundance World at the end of the day.
The radius of 3000 miles might be large, but they were Martial Dipper Realm experts. They weren’t slow at all and they managed to scan through the area before long. It was a shame they didn’t discover anything.
They didn’t give up. They quickly expanded their search radius and finally discovered something strange on an asteroid 5000 miles out that was less than a thousand feet wide.
The person who discovered the anomaly was Shang Xia, and everyone quickly made their way over. With Shang Xia’s guidance, they quickly discovered a hidden entrance stacked with multiple restrictions.
Shen Baisong muttered, “It’s definitely the same person. The methods and restrictions left are the same!”
Yi Jingzi observed the restrictions and muttered, “The restrictions here seem a lot newer than those Shen Baisong discovered. This gathering point seems to have been constructed after the region was destroyed.”
Gong Xinlan turned to Shang Xia and asked directly, “How did you locate this place? I scanned the area with my divine will earlier and I didn’t notice this entrance at all. Much less the cave that was created within this asteroid...”
That was the reason why Pang Jingyun and the others were unable to discover anything despite scanning through the area alongside Shang Xia.
“I was just lucky.” Shang Xia chuckled before looking at Shen Baisong. “Brother Shen, are you able to determine when the restrictions have been opened last?”
“The heaven and earth qi in the area is thin, but those within the restriction is circulating extremely quickly. I am unable to make the determination based on what I learned in the Azure Ascension World. However, I can roughly guess that it hasn’t been a month since it was last active. In fact, it might be even shorter than that...”
Everyone was stunned by his revelation. It seemed as though they finally caught a trace of the foreign cultivator!
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