The grand residence of the sect master on the floating island was designed with majestic architecture. Inside, there were pavilions, towers, lakeside terraces, and corridors, all exquisitely crafted down to the finest details.
At this moment, a man with a jade-like face and dressed in plain white robes was standing idly by the water, casually feeding the spirit fish. Though his features were youthful, making him appear around thirty years old, his long white hair cascaded down to his ankles. A simple jade hairpin held his hair in place, and his plain, wide white robes exuded an air of simplicity. However, the faint glow emanating from the robes suggested their extraordinary value.
Just then, a middle-aged man dressed in the formal robes of a personal disciple of the Talisman Sect approached and respectfully saluted the man feeding the fish.
"Sect Master, there is urgent news from Changqing Hall. The young master's identity token has been destroyed."
As he spoke, the disciple presented a pale jade token, cracks covering its surface like a spider's web, teetering on the edge of shattering.
Taihua Daojun didn't even move his eyes, his hand still leisurely scattering fish food into the water. With a casual wave of his other hand, the cracked jade token was drawn from the disciple's hands and floated into his palm. After toying with it briefly, he tossed it back.
"He destroyed it himself. No need to worry."
This jade token was a pair with the identity token that He Yi had carried. When He Yi's token was destroyed, this one also reacted.
Every personal disciple of the Talisman Sect and above possessed such an identity token.
For disciples below the personal disciple level, their connection to the sect was maintained by a soul lamp in Changqing Hall. When a disciple perished, their lamp would extinguish, allowing the sect to keep track of their well-being. If circumstances were suspicious, the soul lamp could be used to investigate further, providing protection to ordinary disciples and deterring outsiders from recklessly targeting members of the Talisman Sect.
The middle-aged disciple hesitated briefly before speaking again, "But the young master is still young, and now he's alone in a remote region without his identity token. If something happens to him…"
"It's fine," Taihua Daojun interrupted, cutting him off.
He watched the fish leisurely swimming in the water, letting out a soft sigh. Since they had agreed on this path beforehand, he wouldn't interfere in He Yi's decisions.
Without dwelling on He Yi any further, Taihua Daojun shifted the conversation.
"Keep an eye on Wanwantong. Lian Ying Hall has already sent people to the mortal realm to investigate the Ji Stone incident. Make sure they don't cause trouble in the mortal world at this critical time."
Wanwantong's surveillance of the mortal realm was not a secret to someone like Taihua Daojun.
"Understood!"
"And what about those three Ji cultivators we captured last time? Have they confessed anything useful?"
The middle-aged man shook his head.
"Reporting to the sect master, they seem to be mere underlings. Despite crying out in agony during soul-searching, whenever we ask serious questions, they claim ignorance. Just yesterday, one of the Ji cultivators, while unconscious, mumbled the name 'Lord Ji Traveler,' but upon waking, had no recollection of the term."
After the discovery of the Ji Stones during the Talisman Master Tournament, various sects within the Northern and Southern Spiritual Domains, including the alliance organization Lian Ying Hall, had begun capturing Ji cultivators hidden among the populace near major cities.
However, due to the nature of their cultivation, or perhaps due to some restriction or special technique, typical soul-searching techniques proved ineffective. Whenever their memories were probed, parts of their memories would be erased.
Each time, the Ji cultivators would experience excruciating pain during the soul-searching process.
Once the soul-searching stopped, they would seem fine, but the erased memories would be permanently lost.
This frustrating phenomenon had greatly slowed down the investigation into the Ji Stones. If not for this, Lian Ying Hall wouldn't have sent cultivators to the mortal realm in the first place.
After all, it was a thankless task, and many within Lian Ying Hall doubted the mortal realm could yield any significant breakthroughs when even the cultivation world had hit a dead end.
Only a few believed that, given the stagnation in their current investigation, the mortal realm might offer some overlooked clues.
Thus, the order to send envoys to the mortal realm had been issued to various major sects of the Northern and Southern Spiritual Domains last year.
"Ji Traveler..." Taihua Daojun muttered the title softly. After scattering the last of the fish food, he rotated his right hand and produced a storage ring, which he handed to the middle-aged disciple.
"Send this storage ring to Fenghua Daojun of Chengyuan Sect in the Hongshan Domain. She's been in seclusion for years. If she's emerged, tell her it's a gift to congratulate her on coming out of seclusion."
The storage ring was intricately designed, with a purple gemstone embedded in its surface. A restriction had been placed on it, one that no one in the Northern and Southern Spiritual Domains could break except Taihua Daojun.
"Understood, I'll handle it immediately." The middle-aged disciple took the storage ring and departed from the sect master's residence.
Meanwhile, far away in the mortal realm, Lin Xiao, who was still fretting over his future inability to enjoy some leisure time, suddenly remembered the seal formation he had set up in Huan You Country.
Since people from the cultivation world were coming to investigate, they would undoubtedly visit the site of the original outbreak in Huan You Country, and the Ji Stone mines would certainly be a focus of their investigation.
Which meant he would likely have to undo the seal formation.
There was also the possibility that they might question him about the origins and function of the formation.
Fortunately, with the example of Qinglian Sect's relic to follow, he could simply claim the formation was a part of his sect's legacy.
However, from now on, he would need to be more cautious. Claiming a couple of powerful artifacts as part of his sect's legacy was plausible, but repeatedly producing rare treasures that no one else had would surely draw unwanted attention.
With that thought, Lin Xiao could no longer sit still. He immediately stood up and began making his way toward Huan You Country.
Given the vast knowledge of cultivators from the cultivation world, it would be wise to weaken the formation before they arrived.
Fortunately, with his current Nascent Soul cultivation, the round trip to Huan You Country wouldn't take too long, and he should be able to return before He Yi finished walking the Path of Reflection.
As he hurried on his way, he sent a transmission talisman to Liu Yunian back in the sect, just to be safe.
While external forces stirred and schemed, life within Lingxian Sect continued as usual, with disciples diligently focused on their tasks.
At noon, the disciples of Qingyun Peak had just finished their lessons.
Many gathered in groups, discussing what they had learned in class, while some of the more experienced disciples chose to meditate in solitude within their rooms.
One such disciple was Yuan Jinsheng, who had been at Lingxian Sect for several months now.
At this moment, he was fully immersed in observing his golden core, a look of delight spreading across his face. He seemed to be muttering to himself.
"It's fully healed… it really is fully restored."
When Yuan Jinsheng first entered Lingxian Sect, he had been astonished by the advanced cultivation techniques, but due to his damaged golden core, he had initially planned to focus more on mastering the four arts of cultivation, hoping to gather enough resources for his son's future.
Yet, day by day, to his utter amazement, his once-irreparably damaged golden core was slowly, but visibly, healing!