188: Chapter 185 The Two Shocked

This question, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, instantly shattered the oppressive silence that had just filled the room.

Chen Heng, who had been furrowing his brows while lost in his own thoughts, suddenly raised his head.

In his eyes, that trace of deep worry was instantly replaced by surprise, and his sharp gaze shot straight at Zheng Ming.

"You noticed it too?" he asked reflexively, his voice tinged with an urgency he hadn't even realized.

Zheng Ming nodded slowly. On his weathered face, his features were taut, and his deep eyes flickered with gravity and contemplation.

He did not answer immediately, instead casting his gaze toward the vast hall outside. His vision seemed able to pierce through layers of palace walls, seeking that rigid and lonely figure that had long since vanished at the edge of the horizon.

"Hmm." After a long while, he squeezed out a heavy syllable from the depths of his throat.

Zheng Ming and Chen Heng were both extremely rare Soul Refining Great Grandmasters in the Desolate Province.

Their path of cultivation was completely different from that of ordinary Martial Artists. Ordinary Cultivators tempered their blood and Qi, honed their True Essence, and pursued the ultimate in Physical Body and strength. They, however, poured their life's energy into the ethereal yet truly existing Sea of Consciousness.

They refined their Divine Soul and explored the mysteries of the Soul, and therefore, possessed a sensitivity to all fluctuations related to the spirit and Soul that far exceeded that of ordinary people, bordering on instinct.

Just a moment ago, when Fang Tao's mountain-like body stood in this hall, Chen Heng had keenly captured a hint of indescribable disharmony.

It did not come from the pressure of cultivation, nor from hostile killing intent, but rather from a deeper, more fundamental strangeness.

He felt that the Fang Tao before him was like an exquisite puppet from which the Soul had been extracted.

Every one of his movements and every glance revealed a programmatic stiffness and rigidity.

The majestic Aura belonging to the Grandmaster Realm that he exuded was still undeniably real, but the core of this Aura lacked that unique "spiritual charm" that belonged only to top experts—agile, free, and moving at the behest of one's will.

It was like an unparalleled divine weapon; its sharpness remained, but it had lost the "sword Soul" capable of wielding it.

However, this feeling was too subtle, like a candle in the wind, fleeting and ephemeral.

Coupled with the fact that his mind had been preoccupied by the chaotic war at the time, Chen Heng had once thought this was merely an illusion born from his exhaustion after days of continuous battle.

But now, when Zheng Ming, a Fellow Daoist who was also a Soul Refining Great Grandmaster, raised the same question with such a certain tone, the vague cloud of doubt in Chen Heng's heart was instantly dispelled.

He could be one hundred percent certain that the Fang Tao from just now absolutely had a problem!

"His Divine Soul..." Chen Heng furrowed his brows, struggling to find the most fitting words in his mind to describe that feeling, "...gives me the feeling of a stagnant pool of water. No, even more lifeless than stagnant water. It seems to be completely wrapped in an invisible, thick shell, isolating the inside from the outside, preventing me from sensing any emotional fluctuations or ripples of Divine Thought that a living person should have."

Hearing the conversation between these two Soul Refining Great Grandmasters, Wang Ming, who had been silent and standing to the side, finally showed a clear trace of gravity on his face, which was usually as calm as ten-thousand-year black ice.

His gaze, sharp as a falcon's, swept back and forth between Chen Heng and Zheng Ming; not a single subtle change in expression escaped his eyes.

"Did you two notice something?"

Wang Ming spoke in a low voice. His tone was flat, yet it carried an inherent power to calm hearts, as if no matter if the sky collapsed or the earth split, as long as he was here, everything could still be salvaged.

As the Sect Master of the Zetian Sect and the recognized strongest expert in the Desolate Province, he carried the burden not just of a Sect's rise and fall, but of the safety of the entire Human Race. Any anomaly that could potentially shake the Foundation of the Desolate Province would trigger his most sensitive nerves.

Facing Wang Ming's inquiry, Chen Heng and Zheng Ming exchanged a glance simultaneously.

They both saw the same confusion and helplessness in each other's eyes.

Both of them lowered their eyes simultaneously, falling into a deeper level of contemplation.

Inside the hall, a suffocating silence fell once again, so quiet that they could almost hear each other's heartbeats.

A long time passed, so long that it felt like a century.

Zheng Ming raised his head first. He looked at Wang Ming with a bitter, defeated smile on his face and shook his head slowly.

"I can't say."

His tone was filled with a sense of powerlessness—a feeling that was extremely rare for a Great Grandmaster standing at the Peak of the world.

Chen Heng also let out a long sigh and picked up the conversation, adding a more concrete analogy: "We can only be certain that something is wrong with him, but as for exactly what is wrong, or what means caused this, with our current cultivation and knowledge, we cannot see through it for the time being. It is like a Mortal physician who can tell a patient is terminally ill, but cannot find the root of the illness, let alone prescribe a cure."

This feeling made both Great Grandmasters, who had reached the pinnacle in their respective fields, feel a rare sense of trouble and unease.

Upon hearing this, Wang Ming's brows furrowed even deeper, almost knitting into the character " river".

He did not continue to press the matter.

He trusted the judgment of Chen Heng and Zheng Ming. If even the two of them, who specialized in the Divine Soul, felt it was tricky and unfathomable, then it meant that the complexity and eeriness of this matter likely far exceeded the current cognitive scope of the entire cultivation world of the Desolate Province.

He slowly turned around, stood with his hands behind his back, and walked step by step to the entrance of the majestic hall.

He raised his head, gazing up at the gray, overcast sky shrouded in continuous dark clouds.

For these past few days, a sense of indescribable foreboding had been lingering deep within his heart.

A sudden impulse, a restlessness of the mind.

As a descendant possessing the Bloodline of the ancient Divine Beast Xuanwu, he had an extraordinary, near-instinctive sensitivity to the changes in the Qi flows of this world that far exceeded that of ordinary people. He could clearly feel that a vast, cold, and evil power was secretly brewing and growing in some corner of the world.

It was like an invisible giant net, slowly shrouding the entire Desolate Province in a silent manner.

He had a premonition that a heaven-shaking catastrophe, one that had not occurred in thousands of years and was sufficient to overturn the entire civilization of the Human Race, was likely imminent.

And the seemingly massive civil war currently instigated by the two Imperial Dynasties of Great Chu and Great Yan, along with the Nine Great Sects, was perhaps merely a trivial prologue to this heaven-shaking catastrophe.

After a long while, Wang Ming withdrew his deep gaze. He turned around and looked back at Chen Heng inside the hall.

"Where is Chen Zhiwen now?"

His tone remained flat, with no discernible emotional fluctuation. But at this critical juncture of internal strife and external threats, where danger lurked on all sides, suddenly mentioning this young man's name clearly held extraordinary significance.

Chen Heng was slightly stunned, and then, a very complex expression appeared on his face.

"That kid..." He shook his head, a bitter smile appearing on his lips.

"Ever since he single-handedly killed five Great Grandmaster Old Ancestors of the Yao Race last time, he hasn't stayed in the capital for more than a few days..."

Mentioning this, even while in a difficult situation, Chen Heng's tone was filled with unconcealable pride. That was the supreme glory belonging to the entire Great Xuan Dynasty.

"...He said that he had gained insights on the path of Qi Refining and seemed to have touched that final barrier. He needed to travel abroad and search for that glimmer of opportunity within the Mortal World to break through his Qi Refining Realm to the Peak Grandmaster level as well."

Chen Heng paused, a trace of worry appearing in his eyes, and continued: "Counting carefully now, he has been away from the Great Xuan imperial capital for over a month. This kid has always acted in an unrestrained and unpredictable manner, and his whereabouts are uncertain. As for where he is specifically, even I have no idea."

Hearing this answer, even Wang Ming and Zheng Ming, whose states of mind were as steady as mountains and who had seen countless storms, could not help but show expressions of unbelievable shock on their faces simultaneously.