31: Chapter 31 Eliminating the Treasure Rat at the Root! Tracking Talisman Locks On, Where Can the Treasure Rat Escape?

The Xuantian Sect's massive flying ship, stretching over a hundred feet, resembled a sleeping steel beast, steadily traversing the vast sea of clouds.

A faint golden defensive Formation shimmered on the outer layer of the flying ship, completely isolating the harsh gales high above that were strong enough to tear apart ordinary Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators.

The interior of the ship was brightly lit, with the accompanying elite Disciples mostly gathered in their cabins, meditating or chatting in small groups about their expectations for the Sword King City in the Central Plains.

On the top floor of the flying ship, inside the most spacious and luxurious lead guest cabin.

Gu Yi sat cross-legged on a bed covered with ten-thousand-year warm jade, his gaze calmly sweeping toward the cabin door.

Outside the door, he could vaguely sense two elite Disciples responsible for serving him standing straight like javelins, keeping watch for him.

"I have had a realization today and need to enter seclusion to meditate, to thoroughly stabilize my current Realm."

Gu Yi's voice, mixed with a trace of the thick True Qi of a Peak Golden Core Stage Cultivator, clearly penetrated the cabin door and fell into the ears of the two Disciples.

"In these few days, no matter who comes to seek me, even the vice-leaders, block them all outside. If there is an urgent matter, directly trigger the guest cabin's defensive Formation to transmit sound; do not trespass without authorization."

"We will strictly obey Senior Brother Gu's decree! We will certainly not leave our posts for a single step and will guard the cabin door to the death!" A response came immediately from outside the door, incredibly respectful and filled with a hint of fanaticism.

For the current Disciples of the Xuantian Sect, Gu Yi, who had reached the Peak of the Golden Core Stage at such a young age, was not only highly valued by the Peak Master but also personally entrusted with important tasks by the Sect Head, had long been an existence they looked up to like a high mountain.

Being able to act as a guard for Gu Yi was a supreme honor for them.

Listening to the movement outside the door completely fall into dead silence, the gentle smile at the corner of Gu Yi's mouth faded bit by bit, replaced by a coldness like ten-thousand-year ice.

He raised his hand and waved, and several Formation Flags flew out from his wide sleeves, silently merging into the four corners of the guest cabin.

Accompanied by a faint ripple in space, a small soundproofing and aura-concealing Formation instantly took shape, completely dividing the entire interior of the guest cabin from the outside world into two mutually undisturbed worlds.

After doing all this, Gu Yi walked slowly to the glass porthole engraved with defensive runes, looking down condescendingly at the outlines of the mountains and rivers rapidly receding below the flying ship.

The vast Ten Thousand Mountains were being left behind bit by bit in his line of sight.

Gu Yi's deep eyes flashed with extreme rationality and indifference.

Back then, on the altar of the Secret Realm in the back mountain, he had crushed Lin Tian's Dantian and taken away the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire, but he did not take Lin Tian's life on the spot.

That was not because he was soft-hearted, but because he adhered to the principle of keeping the Son of Luck as a "treasure-hunting mouse" to be farmed and squeezed, wanting to see if this mouse, forced into a dead end, could still dig out any hidden scraps of Opportunity in this territory.

Times have changed.

Now that he had boarded the flying ship heading to the Central Plains' Sword King City as the leader, about to step into a wider and more challenging world.

As for Lin Tian, with his Dantian completely shattered and his cultivation lost, rotting in the wilderness like a dead dog, it was impossible for him to cross this distance of thousands of miles to follow him to the Central Plains to continue "hunting for treasure" for him.

A treasure-hunting mouse that was limited by geography and whose foundation had been completely squeezed dry naturally lost its value for continued retention.

The cultivation world is bizarre, and those who carry great Luck are often as hard to kill as cockroaches.

If such a guy harboring deep hatred were left to wander outside, no one could be sure if he would find some ancient expert's Legacy in some abyss or encounter some Heaven-Defying plot armor of returning from the dead.

Since the wool had already been sheared bald, before starting a new hunt, it was natural to scatter the ashes of the previous one cleanly.

Gu Yi closed his eyes, his thoughts sinking into his Sea of Consciousness.

A translucent System panel emitting a faint glimmer slowly emerged in the dark Sea of Consciousness.

He quickly browsed through the dazzling array of items in the villain shop, skipping over the various erotic props and Formation immortal wines, and locked his gaze precisely on a Talisman icon flickering with a faint ghostly light.

[Elementary Tracking Talisman]: Can perform precise positioning within a radius of ten thousand miles based on the target's residual extremely faint aura or blood. Exchange price: 100 Villain Points.

"Exchange."

Gu Yi gave the command without any hesitation.

[Ding! Consumed 100 Villain Points, Elementary Tracking Talisman exchange successful!]

The moment the crisp prompt sound fell, a Talisman the size of a palm, drawn with complicated dark red cinnabar Formation patterns, appeared out of thin air in Gu Yi's palm.

The material of the Talisman paper was neither gold nor wood, warm to the touch, faintly revealing an aura of mysterious Heavenly Dao rules.

Gu Yi recalled the scene in the Secret Realm a few days ago, when he stepped on Lin Tian's Dantian, that chaotic and resentful True Qi fluctuation unique to Lin Tian.

He extracted that trace of aura deeply engraved in his memory, forced a drop of his own most Yang and pure Creation Immortal Body True Qi from his fingertips, and slammed it onto the center of the Tracking Talisman.

"Hum —"

The dark red Formation patterns on the Tracking Talisman wriggled violently as if they were living things that had drunk their fill of blood.

Immediately after, the entire Talisman turned into a dazzling red light and dissipated into the air.

In Gu Yi's vision, enhanced by his Immortal Body, a thin red line that only he could see extended from under his feet, pierced through the wall of the guest cabin, and pointed directly into the depths of the vast night sky behind the flying ship.

"Caught you."

Gu Yi stood up and took a large black night-traveling cloak from his storage ring and put it on.

The large hood completely hid most of his face in the shadows, revealing only a chin with hard lines and a biting murderous intent.

He walked to the glass porthole, formed seals with his hands quickly, and strands of the Creation Immortal Body's Origin aura overflowed from his fingertips.

This aura was extremely soft and smooth, easily tearing open a small gap in the porthole's Formation that only allowed one person to pass without triggering the flying ship's overall defensive alarm.

The biting night wind from high altitude poured into the cabin through the gap, blowing the black cloak to make a hunting sound.

Gu Yi jumped, his whole body like a ghost owl merging into the night, instantly breaking away from the protection of the flying ship and falling straight into the bottomless cold sea of clouds.

The gap in the porthole's Formation automatically merged and circulated the moment he left, as smooth as new, as if the person in this guest cabin had never left for half a step.

The gales high above were as sharp as knife cuts, enough to tear ordinary low-level Cultivators into pieces.

Gu Yi unhurriedly operated the "Yin Yang Great Compassion Sutra" in his body, and a layer of streamlined colorless protective True Qi wrapped him tightly inside.

Following the guidance of the strange red line in his vision, he shuttled rapidly under the thick clouds.

The terrain under his feet receded rapidly in the thick night.

From the undulating continuous mountain ranges, it gradually turned into an uninhabited Gobi, and then into a withered dense forest shrouded in miasma.

Gu Yi's posture did not pause at all, like a sharp arrow off the string, heading straight for the prey.

He flew for nearly two hours.

The crescent moon in the night sky, which had originally been obscured by thick dark clouds, finally stingily sprinkled a piece of pale radiance.

Gu Yi's flight speed gradually slowed down, and the True Qi fluctuations around his body were suppressed by him to an almost non-existent level.

The red line in his vision that had been extending into the distance was now pointing straight down to a desolate mountain ridge below.

On the leeward side of that mountain ridge, a dilapidated ancient temple in the wilderness stood alone in the whistling cold wind.

The arched roof of the ruined temple had long collapsed for the most part, and it was overgrown with withered yellow weeds half a person tall.

Between the broken walls, a faint glimmer of fire was vaguely revealed.

Gu Yi, like a withered leaf that had lost its weight, drifted silently onto an old withered locust tree outside the ruined temple.

The black cloak perfectly blended with the surrounding shadows, not even leaking a trace of extra breathing sound.

Through the half-hidden dilapidated temple door, the scene inside the ruined temple was clearly reflected in Gu Yi's eyes.

In the center of the main hall, a bonfire barely lit with dead branches was swaying in the cold wind, making a faint "crackle" sound.

Borrowing this flickering firelight, one could see a miserable figure curled up under the already paint-peeling and unrecognizable mountain god statue.

That was none other than Lin Tian, who used to be high-spirited and full of thoughts that he was about to start a path of counterattack.

The blue long shirt he wore that originally belonged to the Xuantian Sect's outer Sect had long been pasted into a ball with solidified black blood and mud, exuding a disgusting fishy stench.

His face was withered, his eyes deeply sunken, and his originally plain features were twisted together because of extreme pain and hatred, looking exceptionally hideous and terrifying.

"Cough cough... Pfft!"

Lin Tian was sitting cross-legged on the ground covered with damp dry grass, his hands struggling to pinch a Spirit Gathering technique, his forehead full of cold sweat the size of soybeans.

However, the thin Spiritual Qi wandering in the world around him, as soon as it was inhaled into his body, was like a punctured ball, frantically escaping along his completely shattered Dantian.

Accompanied by the backlash of Meridians brought about by forcibly gathering Qi, Lin Tian suddenly spat out a large mouthful of black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, and his whole body collapsed powerlessly onto the cold mud ground.

"Why... why can't I even keep a trace of Spiritual Qi!"

Lin Tian grabbed the mud on the ground tightly, his fingernails cracked from excessive force, seeping out strands of fresh blood.

His bloodshot eyeballs stared fixedly at the jumping bonfire, and a roar like a beast before dying came from his throat.

"Gu Yi! You shameless scum who deceives the world! You took my Spiritual Fire, crippled my Dantian, and destroyed my Dao Foundation! Even if I, Lin Tian, turn into a vengeful ghost, even if I fall into the endless Hell forever, I will absolutely not let you go!"

The ruined temple echoed with his curses full of resentment and despair.

Every desperate curse pulled on his broken Meridians, making him twitch uncontrollably in pain.

But he still gritted his teeth, as if only this bone-deep hatred could support his broken body to continue lingering in this wilderness.

"Senior... Senior Ji! Wake up!"

After venting his resentment, Lin Tian suddenly seemed to have grabbed the last straw, frantically rubbing the ancient ring worn on his left index finger, trying to wake up the mysterious remnant Soul that had once resided in it and given him infinite hope.

"Didn't you say I was a one-in-a-million Genius? Please appear and save me... As long as you can help me reshape my Dantian, as long as you can let me kill Gu Yi with my own hands to get revenge, I, Lin Tian, am willing to be your servant, I am willing to pay any price!"

Lin Tian begged bitterly to the ring, his tears mixed with mud, washing out two muddy traces on his face.

However, the ancient ring that once emitted a warm luster was now like a piece of pig iron that could be seen everywhere on the roadside, without any ripples of spiritual power fluctuation.

On the withered tree branch, Gu Yi looked down at this funny and miserable scene in the temple.

There was not the slightest ripple of pity in those deep eyes, only extreme indifference as if looking at a dead object.

This is the truest and cruelest background color of the cultivation world.

The so-called Son of Luck, after losing his halo and being completely stripped of all value, ends up even more miserable than those beggars wandering in the mortal world.

Gu Yi's palm slowly rested on the hilt of the long sword at his waist.

The temperature of the surrounding air began to drop sharply, accompanied by the cold murderous intent that he no longer concealed and quietly permeated from him.

The few remaining withered leaves on the withered tree branch condensed a layer of fine frost at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The night wind blew, bringing a colder chill.

The bonfire in the center of the ruined temple, which was already lingering in the cold wind, seemed to feel a certain terrifying pressure, and the flame flickered violently twice.

With a soft "pfft" sound.

The remaining firelight was completely extinguished.

The entire ruined temple instantly fell into dead silence and darkness where one could not see one's fingers.

Lin Tian's movement of frantically rubbing the ring suddenly stiffened, and an extreme sense of death crisis that made his Soul tremble like a cold poisonous snake, climbed up his spine frantically, instantly freezing all the blood in his body.