The two drifted into the rift together, slowly descending.
When they crossed the boundary and sensed they began to ascend, Yu Ziqing stopped and looked at the talismans hidden on either side of the rift.
"Those are talismans used to alert against Devils."
Lou Huai instantly understood, transformed into black smoke, and slipped into Yu Ziqing's boot. Yu Ziqing also dispelled the aura of the white sky Devil, adopting instead the state of a pure human being possessed by the Devil, slowly floating upward.
Emerging from the rift, he glanced around.
It was merely a desolate wilderness, with formations camouflaged around the rift to conceal it.
As he suspected, a major power wouldn't allow an Abyssal Rift to appear on their territory; they would seal it off immediately.
Even upon discovering an Abyssal Rift, they wouldn't send just one person to explore it stealthily.
Stepping out of the rift, Yu Ziqing's feet hovered above the ground as he slowly passed through the camouflaged formation. Glancing back, everything behind him was disguised; there was no sign of the rift or even the fluctuations of the formation.
After flying out, he oriented himself, dispelled the Demonic Qi surrounding him, and soon found a populated area.
Seeing the city in the distance, Yu Ziqing asked Lou Huai a question.
"Do you know where Shiliang City is?"
"I know it, a small city in the southern part of Daqian."
"The southern part of Daqian..."
Yu Ziqing pondered for a moment. Daqian, southwest, he seemed to have heard of Shiliang City somewhere before.
Recalling briefly, he pulled out a record book he used and quickly found the two characters "Shiliang" amid the cluttered information.
In this region of Daqian, ten liang equals one jin, so they normally wouldn't mention ten liang, which is why he thought he had definitely seen it before.
It detailed some intelligence related to Song Chengyue.
That guy was born in a mountain village near Shiliang City.
It was said that this fellow was premature at birth, weighing barely one jin, and it's unknown how he survived back then.
When Song Chengyue rose rapidly through the ranks, Shiliang City, somehow, through loose associations, was said to have been named by the County Magistrate to curry favor with Song Chengyue.
In reality, the name Shiliang City had existed for countless years.
After the hearsay official reckless accusations, a year later, Song Chengyue found a pretext to bring him into the Jinyi Wei government office, and when he was finally released, he was already ruined.
This was among the widespread stories Yu Ziqing had collected, all about defaming Song Chengyue with vile slander.
He hadn't even carefully examined these absurd stories, just routinely gathered them.
In reality, Yu Ziqing speculated that the hearsay official was first captured, and later, his associates fabricated the story to spread it around, turning it into a tale of Jinyi Wei arresting him for speaking out boldly.
Conveniently, they also sullied the County Magistrate of Shiliang City, who wasn't aligned with them.
As the villain of these stories was Jinyi Wei, there were bound to be some believers.
Yu Ziqing scratched his head. Honestly, he came to investigate this rift mainly to find out where it led.
Using the Abyss as a means was simply far too convenient.
It was much better than painstakingly burning Spirit Jade and taking a Flying Boat, and also much more discreet.
In the Abyss, he wasn't afraid of revealing his identity, nor would it attract Devil attacks.
This was something very few others could achieve.
He just hadn't expected the rift would lead to Song Chengyue's ancestral home, which he hadn't returned to in centuries.
That made things a bit strange.
He didn't go to Shiliang City but instead turned back.
He waited quietly on another mountaintop.
After waiting for a full day, he finally saw someone emerge from the camouflaged formation.
The person was young, dressed in a black Wyrm Suit, with a cautious and serious expression.
After examining the area briefly, he cautiously scanned his surroundings, also using a probing Dharma Method. After a moment, he threw a large stone, which appeared and blocked the small rift within the camouflaged formation.
From a distance, as the person emerged, Yu Ziqing closed his eyes to avoid being sensed by the other.
When he could only see a black dot far away, Yu Ziqing grinned.
An old acquaintance indeed.
Back when Jinlan Mountain had yet to undergo drastic changes, it was the Jinyi Wei's An Yue who came to Jinlan Mountain for transactions.
This guy hadn't died after all.
Yu Ziqing thought he was dead, surprisingly still alive and kicking.
He even came here to secretly explore the Abyss.
Yu Ziqing returned to the rift's side, entered the camouflaged formation, and saw the large stone covering the central rift after investigating around the rift for a moment.
"Lou Huai, did you notice that this rift has expanded a bit?"
"Boss, I couldn't tell, I just felt it's a bit smoother to pass through."
Yu Ziqing slipped along the untouched edge of the rift without touching anything, slowly squeezing through.
Upon emerging from the other side of the rift again, he could see that the rift had clearly expanded.
It was nearly ten feet wide and seven or eight feet long.
Here, there were still traces of an aura, evidently someone had used a Magical Treasure here.
The aura was faint, almost dissipating.
Yu Ziqing stared at the rift for a long time, then asked,
"Lou Huai, can this Abyssal Rift be artificially opened?"