The deaths of Miaoxin, Yuanming, and others did not cause even a ripple in the long, dark night. After all, in such pitch darkness, who could see anything? How could anyone know that a Nascent Soul cultivator had fallen?
At most, someone might suddenly realize, "Huh? Why have the people from the Celestial Sound Zen Temple suddenly disappeared?"
Meanwhile, other battles continued elsewhere.
Duan Xiu, the elder of the Duan family, pursued Shangguan Hao but ended up severely injured by him and was forced to flee. Hindered by a group of Nether Crocodiles, Shangguan Hao also had to give up the chase.
Miaoxin had initially pursued Wei Ji but then chose to chase Bai Changyuan and Qin Huan instead, a decision that ultimately led to his death by Chu Xuan's hand.
Wei Ji, after making a full circle, returned to the vicinity of the Great Chasm, now harboring thoughts against Yun Zhongyu. Though he had not seen Yun Zhongyu before, he recognized the black and white Daoist robes of the Reincarnation Divine Church.
Combining this with Yun Zhongyu's notorious reputation, Wei Ji could guess who was so brazen as to scavenge resources on such a dangerous battlefield.
"The Reincarnation Divine Church... they'll eventually target our Feather Transformation Heaven Palace anyway, might as well find an opportunity to kill him now," Wei Ji thought, his eyes gleaming cruelly as he watched two figures fighting in the distance.
He had learned from various cultivators in this extramundane battlefield about Spirit Feather True Master secretly hoarding the Turbid World Blue Lotus. The Reincarnation Divine Church had a reputation for ruthlessly killing a powerful Deity Transformation being just like that.
This ruthlessness deeply unsettled Wei Ji, who suspected that the Reincarnation Divine Church might already be covertly instigating lesser sects against the Feather Transformation Heaven Palace. For this reason, he wanted to strike first.
Yun Zhongyu was exceptionally talented and had experienced many fortuitous encounters. If Wei Ji could kill him and seize his treasures, his own prospects would be immensely bright.
However, after watching Yun Zhongyu battle Lei Mingyang, the elder from the Lei family, for just a short while, Wei Ji's expression changed. Yun Zhongyu's capabilities were formidable.
Lei Mingyang, a well-known Nascent Soul cultivator, was constantly under pressure from Yun Zhongyu. If not for Lei Mingyang's abundant life-saving treasures, he would probably have already been slain by Yun Zhongyu.
Swallowing hard, Wei Ji's initial ambition faded completely.
As Lei Mingyang's Nascent Soul fled in terror, abandoning both his storage bag and body, Wei Ji's thoughts cleared completely. Having fought with Lei Mingyang inside the cave, he knew they were evenly matched.
"Perhaps I should find someone else to challenge."
Wei Ji gave a resigned smile as he began searching for Miaoxin, Bai Changyuan, and Qin Huan. Unbeknownst to him, all three had already perished.
"Hmph, these people are indeed cunning," he muttered to himself.
In the meantime, Yun Zhongyu casually dissipated the magic in his hand. His recent clash with Lei Mingyang had been immense, drawing many spectators. Naturally, many hoped to see both warriors grievously wounded, ready to swoop in and scavenge.
However, seeing Yun Zhongyu emerge almost unscathed and severely wound Lei Mingyang, forcing him to abandon his treasures and flee as a Nascent Soul, the onlookers swiftly curbed their greed. After all, a tiger at its peak and a dying tiger are entirely different prospects.
Catching Lei Mingyang's fleeing Nascent Soul might prove useful, but Yun Zhongyu dismissed the thought as he scanned Lei Mingyang's storage bag with his spiritual sense and was profoundly disappointed.
Others had misunderstood his goal; he was not after the Deity Nurturing Elixir. Being only at the mid-stage of Nascent Soul, he was still far from the late stage, with at least a hundred years left to slowly seek out the items necessary for Deity Transformation.
What he sought was the "Acquired Miraculous Jade" within the cave. Long before the cave's emergence, he had received intelligence about it and, after several covert verifications, had confirmed its existence.
The cave's master was a prodigious Deity Transformation cultivator from the Reincarnation Divine Church, two thousand years ago—a notorious renegade responsible for countless slaughters.
His greatest achievement was this Acquired Miraculous Jade. Essentially, he had extracted the innate spirit bodies from numerous uniquely talented cultivators and attempted to embed them in various spiritual objects of heaven and earth. Most of these attempts failed, but a few succeeded, resulting in the creation of the miraculous jade.
This formidable cultivator confided only in his closest junior brother, who was Yun Zhongyu's master, the revered True Master Tiancang.
After the cultivator's unexpected death in a conflict between the Reincarnation Divine Church and the Heaven Shaking Divine Sect, the knowledge of the jade's existence became obscured.
True Master Tiancang, along with Yun Zhongyu, had searched for the cave on extramundane battlefields for many years, never succeeding in finding it. Over the years, True Master Tiancang had all but forgotten about it, but Yun Zhongyu still vividly remembered.
Unexpectedly, he discovered that the cave was hidden in this battlefield!
Why was the Acquired Miraculous Jade unparalleled in the world? If one's spiritual roots were compatible, refining and absorbing the jade could grant a corresponding postnatal spirit body. Even if the fit wasn't perfect, one might still acquire a weakened version of the postnatal spirit body!
Yun Zhongyu was indeed among the elite talents within the Reincarnation Divine Church, but he was not without peers. Above him, there were two others, known as the "Reincarnation Holy Children," a man and a woman who were the true chosen of the heavens.
In fifty years, the next selection for Holy Children would take place. To ascend to the ranks of the Holy Children, Yun Zhongyu knew he had to employ every method at his disposal. The postnatal spirit body represented the quickest and best strategy he could conceive.
"In this desperate hour, I must resort to this tactic," Yun Zhongyu clenched his teeth. He had secretly extracted the soul and blood of the prodigious cultivator's descendant, refining it into a special magic treasure.
His master had told him that when the prodigious cultivator had created the Acquired Miraculous Jade, he had also mixed his own essence blood into it.
Now that the cave had opened, someone must have acquired the Miraculous Jade. Using the descendant's blood soul as a guide might lead him to its whereabouts!
Yun Zhongyu produced a blood-red disc. On its surface was a pitch-black, blood-stained needle. Upon closer inspection, the needle was evidently crafted from polished white bone.
Wrapped around it were strands of essence blood and countless souls of the wronged. These were the souls and essence blood of three hundred sixty-two descendants of the prodigy.
Yun Zhongyu formed an ancient seal with his hands and struck the blood-red disc. The needle immediately began to spin wildly, soon pointing in a specific direction.
Overjoyed, Yun Zhongyu swiftly dashed off, his intuition confirmed. Someone had indeed found the Acquired Miraculous Jade and taken it out!
In a blink, Yun Zhongyu had crossed to the other side of the Great Chasm. Wherever he passed, cultivators changed color and hurriedly dodged aside.
But Yun Zhongyu would not let anyone obstruct his path. Any cultivator standing in his way was instantly reduced to a pulp, their storage bags securely fastened to his waist as he passed.
The blood-red disc vibrated more intensely, amplifying Yun Zhongyu's joy. This meant he was very close to the person in possession of the jade.
"Who is it? Who?" Yun Zhongyu lifted the blood-red disc and scanned around. His gaze followed the needle's direction, ultimately fixing on a monk.