Your Spell Version is Too Low!

Da Xuan Prefecture.

The city walls stood over five zhang tall, constructed from bluish-gray stone blocks that shimmered with a faint, cold metallic light under the sun.

The city gate was more than three times wider than Qingyuan County’s. Those entering had to line up at a side gate to have their palm-sized, cyan jade tokens inspected by City Guards clad in dark cyan leather armor with sharp gazes.

"Identity Token," the City Guard’s voice was dry and hard.

Qi Yun was in line. Ahead of him was a burly man carrying mountain goods on a shoulder pole, who was offering his Jade Token with an obsequious smile.

The City Guard took it and swiped a finger across the Jade Token. It glowed faintly, revealing a crude image of the man and a few lines of small text.

The City Guard glanced at it, then waved him through.

Then it was Qi Yun’s turn.

He had no Jade Token.

"First time in Da Xuan?" the City Guard frowned, sizing up his dusty gray clothes and unremarkable face.

"Entry fee is ten taels of patterned silver.

Go over there to register and get a temporary token.

You can only stay for a month. When it’s up, either renew it or get lost."

Ten taels was enough to feed an ordinary family in Qingyuan County for half a year.

Qi Yun’s expression didn’t change. He took a small cloth pouch from his robes, poured out a few pieces of broken silver—exactly ten taels, no more, no less.

The registration office was a small stone pavilion where an old scribe with a goatee sat. He asked for a name, origin, and purpose.

Qi Yun casually gave the name "Yun Qi," his origin as "a refugee fleeing famine from the south," and his purpose as "looking for work."

The old scribe’s eyelids drooped as he recorded the information in a thick ledger. He then took out a crude white stone tablet. His fingertip glowed with a faint white light as he etched something onto it, then tossed it to Qi Yun. "A drop of blood."

Qi Yun did as he was told, pricking his fingertip. A drop of blood fell onto the stone tablet and was quickly absorbed. Two faint red words, "Yun Qi," appeared on the surface, along with the phantom image of a "thirty-day" countdown. ’A crude Divine Soul Branding and a minor time-keeping spell.’

"The rules," the old scribe said lazily. "Private fights are forbidden within the city, and Divine Soul collisions are especially prohibited.

Violators can be killed on the spot or have their souls detained by the City Guard Department’s Law Enforcement Team.

The West Market has general stores, the East Market has restaurants and pawnshops. The North District is for the nobles, so don’t wander around there if you have no business.

In the southern shantytowns, someone could drop dead and no one would bat an eye.

You’re on your own."

Qi Yun took the stone tablet, nodded, and walked through the city gate.

The scene inside the city was completely different. The streets were wide, paved with smooth bluestone slabs, and could accommodate four horse-drawn carriages side-by-side.

The buildings on both sides were noticeably taller and more uniform, with flying eaves and interlocking brackets, many of them three-story pavilions.

The pedestrians were also much better dressed. Occasionally, one could see people in brocade robes with jade pendants at their waists hurrying past, their eyes flashing with a hidden brilliance. They were often accompanied by guards.

A faint fragrance, like a mix of sandalwood and medicinal herbs, permeated the air, bringing a slight sense of peace to one’s Heart and Spirit.

It was a kind of low-tier calming incense widely used by wealthy households.

The moment he entered the city, Qi Yun casually tossed the Jade Token aside. His figure became an inconspicuous gray shadow, weaving through the streets and alleys before heading straight for a place that seemed exceptionally solemn even in this prosperous prefecture, a compound with high walls and deep courtyards—the State Governor’s Mansion.

The main entrance to the mansion was wide, with vermilion-lacquered doors studded with bronze nails.

The stone lions on either side stood with glaring, wide-open eyes, a faint light flowing over their surfaces.

Four guards clad in Fine Iron Scale Armor, long sabers at their waists, stood with their hands on their hilts.

Their auras were formidable, and their sharp eyes scanned the street before them.

The few pedestrians who passed by would instinctively lower their heads and quicken their pace, not daring to look directly at the entrance.

Qi Yun didn’t break his stride, walking straight toward the main gate.

"Halt! This is the Inspector Mansion, an important place. The unauthorized must withdraw!" the lead guard shouted, his hand already on the hilt of his saber.

Qi Yun kept walking, not even sparing them a glance.

But an extremely subtle, almost imperceptible glint of light flashed through his eyes.

This wasn’t a Magic technique, but the majestic will of a Foundation Establishment Master’s Divine Soul, tempered through countless trials.

Although he couldn’t use any of his Profound Yellow Techniques right now,

Qi Yun’s Cultivation and Realm as a Foundation Establishment Master were still immense.

In terms of his Divine Soul alone, he was comparable to someone in the Yin Spirit Realm of this world.

The four guards shuddered, their hands freezing on their hilts. The fierce expressions on their faces instantly turned to vacant confusion.

Qi Yun walked with unhurried ease, as if passing through an empty courtyard. He crossed the threshold and entered the mansion.

Inside, the mansion was filled with pavilions, verandas, and winding corridors. Security was several times tighter than outside, with many guards in plain sight and in hiding. Among them were some with vigorous qi and blood, or who emitted faint Divine Soul fluctuations.

But under the coverage of Qi Yun’s precise and immense Divine Sense, the position and status of every person were clearly reflected in his mind.

He moved as if walking through a maze with a predetermined route, always managing to avoid all lines of sight and perception at the most opportune moments and from the most inconspicuous angles.

On the rare occasion that an encounter was unavoidable, a slight flash in his eyes would send a hidden guard or a patrolling guard’s Heart and Spirit into a momentary trance, causing them to look right through him.

Soon, he passed through courtyard after courtyard and arrived before a small, isolated courtyard that housed a study in the deepest part of the mansion.

The courtyard gate was shut tight, and the fluctuations of an Array emanated from within.

Outside the courtyard, two guards in black with distinctively powerful auras stood on either side like iron pillars.

But against someone like Qi Yun, this level of security was ultimately still too naive.

Inside the study, candlelight shone brightly.

A man of about fifty, dressed in a purple official’s robe, sat behind a large zitan wood desk. His face was stern, yet tinged with exhaustion. With a furrowed brow, he was reading a secret memorial.

The man’s temples bulged slightly, and a deep, condensed aura faintly surrounded him.

He was clearly a Cultivator with a rather solid foundation!

He was none other than the Inspector of Bailin Province—Zhao Yuanzhen.

Suddenly, the Inspector’s fingers, which were turning the pages of the secret memorial, paused.

He snapped his head up.

There, in the center of the study, no more than a zhang away from his desk, a person had appeared out of thin air, utterly silent!

A young man in plain, gray clothes with an ordinary face was standing there quietly, his gaze calm as he watched him.

"Who are you?!"

Zhao Yuanzhen’s heart pounded. He shot to his feet, his right hand instinctively moving to slap a hidden alarm Array on the corner of his desk.

At the same time, the Purple Mansion Divine Soul Power surged within him, preparing to let out a long cry of alarm.

As a Night Travel Realm Cultivator, his Divine Soul could already leave his body to roam at night, and his senses were sharp. Moreover, the study was protected by both Arrays and guards inside and out.

’How could this person appear before me without any warning?!’

’This is no ordinary technique!’

And just as the Inspector raised his head,

Qi Yun took a single step, crossing the distance to the desk as if shrinking the ground beneath his feet.

He reached out a large hand. His five fingers were long and slender, and though their movement seemed slow, in Zhao Yuanzhen’s eyes, they transformed into an inescapable shadow that blotted out all life, pressing straight down on the top of his skull!

Zhao Yuanzhen’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. His Night Travel Realm Divine Soul roared madly, trying to leave his body to resist or escape, only to find itself trapped in a viscous, heavy, and boundless swamp!

The air around him solidified, and even his thoughts became sluggish.

His opponent hadn’t even used any of the known Divine Soul Attack methods of this world.

It was purely the suppression of a higher-level "existence"!

"Urgh—!"

A short, muffled grunt filled with utter terror and agony was forced from Zhao Yuanzhen’s throat.

Qi Yun’s palm was already pressed firmly against the top of his head.

There were no dazzling flashes of light, no explosive bursts of Qi Force.

There was only a terrifyingly brutish, domineering, and unbelievably precise Divine Sense that, like a bursting Star River, ignored all of Zhao Yuanzhen’s crude Divine Soul defenses and instantly flooded into his Purple Mansion Sea of Consciousness.

It rapidly rifled through his memories.

Soul Search!

Countless images, sounds, and fragments of information surged into Qi Yun’s perception like a torrent:

...Three thousand li southwest of the provincial capital lies the Cloud Dream Marsh, shrouded in fog year-round and rampant with miasma. Mortals cannot enter, and it is widely recognized as a "Land Beyond Civilization"...

...Thirty-seven years ago, a woodcutter wandered into the edge of the marsh and saw steps of white jade and immortal cranes circling the sky. After returning, he became witless and dazed, and soon died from the exhaustion of his Divine Soul...

...According to the secret archives of the Inspector Mansion, every sixty years, the fog of the marsh will bizarrely part to form a path that lasts for three days. During this time, individuals with unfathomable auras are occasionally seen entering and leaving. The prefecture has sent personnel to investigate, but they either disappeared without a trace or returned with blurred memories...

Qi Yun focused his search on all details, map fragments, rumors, and strange phenomena related to the "Cloud Dream Marsh."

The token that Desolate Halberd True Monarch had given him showed no reaction.

So he guessed that the Fruit Position might be too far away from him.

Moreover, based on the information he had gathered in Qingyuan County, the Cultivators one could encounter in the mortal world all had very limited Cultivation Realms.

The true Cultivators seemed to be gathered in another region entirely.

This was why he had broken into the Inspector Mansion to find answers.

’No, simply using Divine Sense for a Soul Search is too inefficient. Many of the older memories are stuck together and unclear...’

Frowning as he scanned Zhao Yuanzhen’s memories, Qi Yun was about to withdraw his hand.

Suddenly, the tendrils of his Divine Sense paused as they swept across an extremely hidden and unusually stable corner of the Purple Mansion.

It wasn’t a natural memory zone but was sealed away, tightly wrapped in a Divine Soul Restriction that was both exquisitely fine and as thin as a cicada’s wing, yet abnormally tough.

It was hidden so deeply and so cleverly that it had almost escaped Qi Yun’s Divine Sense scan.

"A little interesting."

A glint of Chaos Color light flashed in Qi Yun’s eyes. The formidable strand of Divine Sense that had been about to withdraw instantly condensed into a needle and stabbed viciously at the cicada-wing-thin Restriction!

"TSSH—"

A soft sound that could only be perceived on the level of the Divine Soul.

Faced with absolute power and a higher essence, the exquisite Restriction was like rice paper pierced by a red-hot steel needle—it shattered instantly.

It revealed a small, sealed orb of light—a memory condensed with a special mark.

Qi Yun’s Divine Sense swept out, seized it, and quickly read its contents.

After just a moment of reading, an unusual light suddenly flared in the depths of his calm eyes, growing brighter and brighter!

This memory was not one of Zhao Yuanzhen’s personal secrets.

It was about a massive, clandestine, and strictly hierarchical—plan!

A world-shaking secret, secretly orchestrated by generations of emperors and core ministers of the Great Cang Dynasty, that secretly united certain Cultivator factions and ancient Noble Families dissatisfied with the status quo.

...The "will of heaven" of the Cangque Realm manifests, setting the rules, suppressing all living things, and strictly controlling the upper limits of cultivation. It has sealed off the path to transcendence beyond the Yang God Realm, treating the common people as straw dogs and using all beings as Resources to maintain an unspeakable "balance"...

...Secret ancient texts passed down through the Great Cang Royal Family reveal that the so-called "will of heaven" is not the immutable Celestial Dao. It can be interfered with, weakened, and even... replaced!

..."Project Waking of Insects"—a plan to accumulate power, bide their time, and then, with the full might of the nation and its allies, defy the celestial order and enact Heaven’s Fall, fighting for a future of true freedom and transcendence for all under heaven!

...As the Inspector of Bailin Province, a high-ranking official governing a border territory, Zhao Yuanzhen is a key node and one of the executors of "Project Waking of Insects" at the local level...

Qi Yun quickly processed this information. The corners of his mouth curled up uncontrollably into a smile that was a mixture of surprise, amusement, and profound meaning.

"Well, well..." he muttered to himself, releasing his hand from the top of Zhao Yuanzhen’s head.

Losing his support, Zhao Yuanzhen slumped into his chair like a heap of soft mud, his eyes shut tight and his breathing faint.

Qi Yun stood in the study with his hands behind his back, his gaze seemingly piercing through the roof, aimed at the location of that cold and merciless "will of heaven" in the unseen world.

"A mere mortal dynasty, beings like ants, actually possess such audacity to undertake this act of Heaven’s Fall...

It’s naive, but that kind of spirit is rare."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

The smile on Qi Yun’s lips turned cold and sharp.

"This ’Project Waking of Insects’ is riddled with flaws. The chance of success is minuscule.

But... if I were involved, perhaps there would be a few more variables."

He wasn’t doing this out of the kindness of his heart; he saw an excellent opportunity.

"So be it."

Qi Yun gave the unconscious Zhao Yuanzhen one last, indifferent glance.

"Since you have such a grand ambition and wish to attempt the extraordinary...

...then allow me, Qi, to lend you a hand, and while I’m at it... borrow the force of your wind."

...