Setting up this barrier took Lan Xiaobu far longer than expected, a full ten days, consuming a vast amount of materials to complete the arrangement.
When Ziyuan saw Lan Xiaobu use the Chaos Plaque as the array’s core again, his eyes lit up. He hadn’t heard of the Chaos Path, but he could sense that the Chaos Path and Chaos Plaque Lan Xiaobu produced were components of a powerful treasure.
“Friend Ziyuan, follow me. I’ll rely on my intuition to search,” Lan Xiaobu said after finishing the Eternal Life Barrier space, his confidence surging. He wasn’t certain he could seize the divine gate, but if Jieti tried to retrieve it, he had over a sixty percent chance of intercepting it.
Spending over ten days setting up the array in this place also deepened his understanding of this universe’s rules.
However, the area was so vast that his divine sense detected no signs of life. He sent countless messages, but none received a response.
After walking for the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Lan Xiaobu stopped. He took out a communication bead left by Luo Caishi, imprinted with her divine sense.
He was about to set up a tracking array, which could locate someone’s general position using their divine sense imprint or aura, provided they had been in the area. But just as he placed the first array flag, a staggering figure appeared at the edge of his divine sense. Lan Xiaobu recognised her instantly—it was Dai Nanjian.
Dai Nanjian was fleeing, constantly unleashing divine abilities behind her.
Ziyuan, also spotting her, said in confusion, “There’s no one chasing or tracking her?”
Lan Xiaobu rushed forward, pointing a finger at Dai Nanjian’s forehead. She shuddered, then snapped awake, “Big Brother Lan, did you save me?”
Lan Xiaobu nodded, “Yes, I saved you. What happened? Didn’t I tell you to wait for me here? Why did you leave?”
“Why would I leave?” Dai Nanjian looked dazed again, her expression turning ferocious, as if locked in a bitter struggle.
Lan Xiaobu abruptly reached for her forehead. His strength far surpassed hers, and with a single grasp, he broke through her sea of consciousness’s protective domain. A piercing screech followed, and he pulled out a blurry entity with a human head and cat body, almost like a shadow.
“Tianmeng Clan?” Lan Xiaobu exclaimed in shock.
The Tianmeng Clan existed in the same vast universe as him, so why were they here?
The human-cat figure in his grasp solidified rapidly, becoming a tangible entity, though only about a metre tall despite growing.
The creature uttered words Lan Xiaobu couldn’t understand. With a snort, he cast several restrictions to bind it and tossed it to the ground.
“Big Brother Lan, that’s the thing,” Dai Nanjian said. “When I arrived, I saw a sacred red lotus. As it tried to escape, I chased it. When I grabbed it, the lotus turned into this human-cat. It became a shadow line and rushed into my forehead. I guarded my mind and sea of consciousness tightly, resisting until now, which is why I’m still alive.” She recounted the events in one breath.
Lan Xiaobu nodded, closing his eyes to sense the surrounding universal principles.
For a cultivator of his level, language barriers didn’t exist. If they did, it meant he’d entered a completely different vast universe with unfamiliar linguistic principles. Even so, by mastering this universe’s linguistic principles, the barrier would vanish.
With his self-cultivated Great Path, Lan Xiaobu didn’t rely on the universe’s dimensional model and quickly grasped the linguistic principles of this space. He inscribed them onto two jade slips, handed them to Dai Nanjian and Ziyuan, and said, “Study these to understand the language. I’ll question this human-cat.”
“Where is this place? Is this entire universe filled with beings like you?” Lan Xiaobu asked.
The human-cat’s eyes darted, feigning incomprehension.
Lan Xiaobu sneered, certain it understood him. Unwilling to waste time, he began extracting its soul memories.
The creature let out a shrill scream, pleading, “Friend, stop! I’ll tell you anything!”
Lan Xiaobu ignored it. It had its chance and squandered it.
In moments, he extracted its memories, opened its world, and with a wave of his hand, incinerated it into nothingness with a flame.
“What did you find?” Dai Nanjian asked, worried. She was uneasy. If this place was full of such terrifying human-cats, capable of possessing others in a primordial spirit state, it was too frightening.
Lan Xiaobu explained, “What I killed was from the Beast Soul Clan, a strange race. They can possess any being, transforming their body into a primordial spirit state during possession, with an incredibly high success rate. The sea of consciousness is a fragile part of the body, and few can resist their direct possession. Friend Dai resisted so long because her primordial spirit is exceptionally strong, not just robust but tempered with unparalleled willpower.”
Dai Nanjian’s strong spirit and will were tied to the Ku family’s torment, burning her spirit with soul fire for countless years. Such inhumane suffering had forged her resilience.
“Beast Soul Clan?” Dai Nanjian repeated, marvelling at life’s unpredictability.
She had endured torment twice by the Ku family, nailed outside and burned by soul fire. Yet she survived, while the Ku family was gone. That ordeal had tempered her spirit and will to an extraordinary degree. Without it, the Beast Soul Clan’s human-cat would likely have succeeded in possessing her. Even so, without Lan Xiaobu’s timely intervention, it would have only been a matter of time.
Lan Xiaobu continued, “The Beast Soul Clan is somewhat like our universe’s Tianmeng Clan, but different. They include not just human-cats but human-tigers, human-snakes, human-leopards, and more. Lacking a proper dao body, they advance through possession. Once successful, they essentially become new human cultivators but refuse to identify as human, still considering themselves Beast Soul Clan…”
He paused, recalling a sect—Beast Soul Dao.
Back on Lizhou Star at Lizhou Palace, the Beast Soul Dao’s leader, Yi Xie, allied with several experts to kill him but was defeated instead. Now, Lan Xiaobu suspected Yi Xie originated from this universe’s Beast Soul Clan, somehow crossing universes to establish the sect.
“Brother Lan, I’ve heard of the Beast Soul Clan,” Ziyuan said. “Their possession is nearly always successful. This failure was an anomaly, mainly because they encountered you. If they have someone near your strength, we must be cautious.”
Lan Xiaobu nodded, “I know where the people who came here are. They’re gathered in one place. Let’s hurry.”
He summoned the Seven Realm Stone.
On the stone, Ziyuan asked, “Brother Lan, do you know if the Beast Soul Clan is connected to Jieti?”
Lan Xiaobu shook his head, “I found no information about Jieti in that human-cat’s memories. They likely don’t know he exists.”
“Who’s Jieti?” Dai Nanjian asked.
“The owner of the divine gate,” Ziyuan explained.
Lan Xiaobu suddenly veered the Seven Realm Stone. A massive black arrow tore through the void where the stone had been a moment earlier. If he’d been a step slower, the arrow would have shredded the stone’s defensive array.
He landed the stone, saying, “This space has top-tier attack prohibitions, likely man-made. Fortunately, our destination is close. Even without the stone, we can reach it quickly.”
Without the stone, the three sped forward. In half a day, they stopped as a massive ochre city appeared in their divine senses.
Even without entering, their senses confirmed it was inhabited by human cultivators, evident from the familiar flow of Great Path principles.
