Tainted will

The formation shone with brilliant azure-blue lights, but the enchanting glow was only short-lived as the starry blue lights quickly withered away and darkness soon followed.

Bai Ming slowly stepped out of the formation with a baffled look on his face, stepping out of the transfer array he quickly twisted his body and began examining the transfer array.

Making sure there was nothing wrong with the transfer array, Bai Ming once again injected his spirit realm divine sense into the formation as he closely eyed the formation.

However, the transfer array this time exhibited absolutely no reaction to the injection of Bai Ming's divine sense.

'Did those teleportation coordinates actually get destroyed while I was activating the transfer array, it's such an absurd coincidence; the formation did illuminate at the beginning, which implied that this coordinate had a connection with the other two coordinates that I had secretly placed in that giant Crab's dwelling.' Bai Ming had a disappointed look on his face as he observed the transfer array.

'Tsk, it's such a loss, if I could have gotten the yang core of that rotten Crab, it would have surely been a tremendous aid while cultivating the Yang phase of the Yin-Yang void realm, what a waste..' Bai Ming's heart ached thinking about the loss he just suffered.

The Yin-Yang void inner cultivation realm had three phases, namely Yin, Yang, and the void phase. The method of cultivating this specific realm was a tad bit different from the other realms which only needed one to accumulate heaven and earth essence to break through into higher realms.

The Yang phase required one to absorb the yang essence and likewise, the Yin phase required one to absorb huge quantities of Yin essence. The Yin and Yang phases have four sub-layers respectively.

Only after fully cultivating these two phases could a cultivator could fuse them and enter the Void phase. Only then would the said individual have reached the peak of the Yin-Yang Void realm and gain the ability to void walk.

If Bai Ming could have gotten the Yang core from the Golden Yang Crab, even without refining it into a top-tier pill Bai Ming could have progressed to the second layer of the Yang phase rapidly.

But If the same Yang core was used by other male cultivators they would undoubtedly reach the peak of the Yang phase, this was because of Bai Ming's heaven-defying cultivation mantra which demanded seven times the resources of normal cultivators. Of course, the payoff was just as terrific.

"Tsk, tsk, no use in dwelling on the past, what's done is done. Let's just Forget the past and embrace the future." Bai Ming's mindset turned for the better rather quickly, as then began pondering on his next move.

....

Somewhere in the inner area of the Eccentric Ancestor's mystic realm.

Three figures stood Inside a large hall that spanned over seventy meters. The hall's roof was embedded with fist-sized luminescent pearls causing the hall to shine with milky-white light. As the walls were sparkling with bits of light, this exceptionally beautiful sight appeared to be caused by magic techniques.

Su Yang and Su Yin stood motionlessly at the center of the hall. They were all staring in the same direction and spoke to each other with dark expressions.

"The violet stellar grass is not here, we were too late." Su Yang uttered in a low voice, his expression was grim.

"But this doesn't make sense, the teacher was really confident in the curse he placed on Yi Yun, shouldn't Yi Yun be suffering from the effects of the curse? Then how did he manage to harvest the spirit herb before us?" Su Yin had troubled look as she questioned her brother.

Su Yang glanced at Su Yin and spread out both of his hands, he was just as confused as her.

'Why did this happen? Did they get rid of the curse planted on him? It's unlikely, Zhou Yi was extremely confident about the fact that Teng Zhe couldn't help Yi Yun in removing the Curse. Then why did this happen? Even though luck is not always omnipotent, but even if Yi Yun didn't get killed due to his bad luck, he should have at least been teleported far away from this place.' Su Yang pondered silently, but the more he thought the more frustrated he grew.

At this moment, Zhi Yan who was meditating on a pile of human bones suddenly spoke, "What if the person who stole this spirit herb is someone else?"

The already quiet hall became even more ghastly, but Su Yang quickly broke the silence, declaring; "The chances of something like that happening are extremely slim, the existence of this tier-8 spirit herb was kept deeply hidden by two people. And secondly, even if others knew the existence of this spirit herb, those defensive mechanisms placed here were not broken with brute force instead they were unlocked with proper methods, only a person who had precise predetermined knowledge about these defensive mechanisms would have been able to open them, not just anyone can do it."

Hearing this Zhi Yan chuckled coldly and said in a disdainful tone, "Senior brother if this said person can find out about the spirit herb what's stopping him from finding out about the defensive mechanisms?"

Hearing this Su Yang's gaze shone but he remained quiet, numerous thoughts rapidly churning in his mind.

'Wait! What if Elder Teng has another disciple..' A cold light flickered past Su Yang's gaze as this wild thought immediately took root in his heart.

"Junior brother Zhi Yan, what you said does indeed make sense but what we need to do now is not waste time by bickering among ourselves. We need to first find Yi Yun and kill him, then we can search his soul to find out whether the disappearance of this spirit herb is related to him or not." Su Yang spoke out, viciousness was deeply concealed in his eyes.

....

A day later,

After finally Walking out of the underground cave, Bai Ming appeared before a thick forest that was verdant and lush, the foot of the mountain was tranquil and fog filled the place.

Bai Ming had already activated a defensive treasure to protect him tightly. He used all his concentration to quickly scan his surroundings and discovered that he had appeared on the waist of a mountain.

Surrounding him were tall ancient trees, and his body could not reach one-tenth of these giant trees.

Lifting his head, he calmly gazed at the sky through the opening between the lush green leaves.

The sky was a tranquil greenish in color. There was a giant orb of red flames burning in the distant sky.

Bai Ming took in this view, he did not know the exact location of the core area but knew that as long as he walked in the direction of the artificial sun he would soon reach his designation.

While moving forward, he used his divine sense to scan around himself all the time, he even scanned the ground below and the sky above, not leaving any blind spots. The incident with the Yang Crab had made him realize his mistake, if it wasn't for him being caught off guard Bai Ming could have actually slain that demonic beast.

After advancing to the spirit realm, Bai Ming's range of inspection was future heightened to a whole new level. Not only did his vision and hearing had gotten enhanced, but he could also sense the slight tremors when he walked, and could also smell any odd odors when he breathed.

Time flowed little by little, but this forest did not seem to have an end.

'Twenty minutes have already gone by, there seems to be something wrong' Bai Ming stopped and reflected on his current scenario carefully.

'I have already been in the forest for a long time and have not encountered a single demonic beast. There are only giant trees or thick fog. Regardless of the distance I continue to move forward or move in any direction, things all look the same.'

He then carefully flew up.

The green sky was completely empty; if he flew high up, Bai Ming would be very conspicuous and it would be extremely easy for him to be discovered by beast groups and get surrounded.

Thus for safety purposes, Bai Ming had chosen to move along the ground. Right now, he took the risk to attempt flying, but the result was sadly disappointing.

The higher up he flew, the denser the fog became. Finally, the fog became so thick that he could not even see his own fingers. There was no need to talk about the sun, once he flew up to the green sky the sun had completely vanished from his sight.

Bai Ming's divine sense was greatly restricted in this fog.

Bai Ming continued flying for a while before he chose to be cautious and swiftly descended to the ground.

Bai Ming continued to walk with a pondering gaze, as started to leave deep sword marks on the ground while continuing to pursue the sun.

After another Ten minutes,

'The situation here, it seems like I am trapped in an illusion, that is quietly disturbing my sense of direction and obstructing my true senses. Unfortunately, I don't have any investigative treasures to break free from this illusion.' Bai Ming thought as he frowned slightly.

"Hmm, What is it that I am overlooking?" Bai Ming questioned himself as he rested against a tree.

But at the very next second, Bai Ming's heart jumped as he suddenly heard a giggle right beside his ear.