Yunxi immediately sent a message to Xun Kun explaining Wei Yunqing's injuries. Not long after, his reply arrived.
"Ran Xi, Wei Yunqing provoked a late fifth-rank lingli Shi Lin at the center of the Qinghua Mountain Range and lost. To save her life, she crushed a Ten-thousand-li Instant Teleportation Talisman and fled. The trackers I dispatched are searching for her trail. It will take some time."
After reading, Yunxi replied at once: "Xun Kun, find her quickly. She is injured. Long Ya's blade spirit will definitely come out to make trouble. This time she wounded her dantian. No one in the Weiyu Realm can repair a dantian at present. This is the perfect moment to drag her into the evil path."
If she were an evil cultivator, Yunxi would strike at this exact time.
"Understood. I will locate her as soon as possible." Uneasy, Xun Kun personally left the sect to sweep for clues but found nothing. It was as if she had never appeared in the Southern Region.
A bad feeling stirred in him. At Out-of-Body, he was among the Weiyu Realm's peak experts. If he spread his divine sense, everything in the Southern Region would be laid bare. Yet even so, he found no trace of Wei Yunqing. It made him feel that Ran Xi's guesses might come true again.
He sent another message to Yunxi, reporting the situation.
Reading the latest update in the Hive, Yunxi flashed into the sky above Haoran Sect and slowly unfurled her divine sense, searching the entire Western Region.
Like Xun Kun, she could sweep the entire Weiyu Realm if she wanted, but both of them were carefully suppressing their cultivation and did not wish to touch the Heavenly Dao's bottom line. Xun Kun searched the Southern Region, so she searched the Western Region.
She found no sign of Wei Yunqing in the West either. She returned to the Hive and immediately messaged Yun Chen and Han Lian, asking them to search their respective territories.
Hao Yi sensed Yunxi's movements. In a flicker, he appeared in the Hive. With a gesture he dismissed the two assisting Nascent Soul cultivators, then asked,
"Ran Xi, has something gone wrong?"
Yunxi briefly explained Wei Yunqing's disappearance, and also told Hao Yi about her and Xun Kun verifying that Long Ya had used Wei Yunqing to shed its shell.
Hao Yi's expression remained calm. The matter likely did not deviate much from Ran Xi's deductions. He said, "Search first. If you find nothing, use the bloodline method. The two of you are half sisters. You should be able to locate her."
"Ancestor is right. I was too anxious." Yunxi had truly forgotten that they were blood-related. The two had always been at odds, and she had never regarded Wei Yunqing as her elder sister.
A day later, Yunxi received replies from Yun Chen and Han Lian. Both had checked their domains. There was no trace of Wei Yunqing.
In the Central Region, Yunxi contacted Xian Feng. He took Yunxi's message seriously and, together with Xian Yao, swept the entire Central Region. He was the last to report back. There was still no sign of Wei Yunqing.
Wei Yunqing seemed to have disappeared from the Weiyu Realm.
Yunxi did not want to waste time. Delay breeds change. What if Long Ya's blade spirit coaxed that fool Wei Yunqing into damaging the seal on the Evil God's body?
Before Hao Yi Ancestor, Hao Hui, and Hao Yan, Yunxi performed the Bloodline Tracing Grand Art.
She sketched the tracing sigils with spiritual power, pricked her middle finger, and flicked a drop of essence blood into the array. When it activated, red light surged. The blood suspended within split into countless tiny arrows pointing in different directions.
Yunxi merged her divine sense into the array and followed every arrow's direction. The threads all led to members of the Wei clan, such as Wei Zonghao of Dan Peak, Wei Zongyu just returned from tempering, Wei Zongjin who had arrived back in Haoran City, and Wei Yunyin. Most lay within the Western Region. Only Wei Yunqing left no trail.
A moment later Yunxi withdrew the drop of blood. For once, the calm on her face cracked.
Hao Yi Ancestor frowned. "Has Wei Yunqing's trail been severed?"
Yunxi shook her head. "Nothing at all appeared."
Hao Yan narrowed her phoenix eyes and offered another possibility: "Could it be that Wei Yunqing and Ran Xi share no blood at all, which is why the bloodline art cannot find her?"
Hao Hui blurted, "Unless the sisters do not share the same father."
Yunxi almost laughed. For a prestigious cultivation family to tangle bloodlines like this. How foolish was Wei Lingyue to raise another's child as his own.
Du Ruolan had guts, daring to achieve her aims this way. To compete with Yunxi's mother, she took such a risk. If exposed, she would die without burial.
Yunxi sighed. "All we can do now is wait for Wei Yunqing to show herself. Hopefully she will be smart enough not to get herself killed at once."
The other three exchanged glances. For the moment, waiting was all they could do.
Then Hao Yi said, "Xiang Sizǐ sent spirit plants and asks you to refine a batch of breakthrough potion. Are you available?"
"I am. As long as all the ingredients for the breakthrough potion are gathered, send them to Lingxue Peak. I will find time to refine them."
Wei Yunqing's disappearance made the time pressure feel even greater. Yunxi's plan was to stack up as many cultivators on the verge of Out-of-Body as possible and push forward the plan for the Weiyu Realm to ascend as a whole.
Hao Yi nodded. "I understand. Do not worry yourself sick. The high-level cultivators of every region know what is at stake. They are more anxious than you."
Yunxi exhaled. "Ancestor, I have the sense that those above have given us little time."
She glanced up at the sky. In the next moment, one suppression sigil on her robe unraveled under everyone's gaze.
Yunxi lifted her hand and traced a new suppression sigil in midair. She waved it onto the spot that had gone blank. The net of sigils linked once more, emitting a gentle silver halo. A breath later, all was calm again.
Hao Yan let out a long breath. When Ran Xi's suppression sigil dispersed, she had felt Out-of-Body pressure wash over her, making her entire body uncomfortable.
Seeing this, Hao Yi's worry matched Yunxi's. "You four only returned to the Weiyu Realm thirty years ago. Why has the suppression weakened already?"
"I do not know. I will force it down as best I can. Once the Weiyu Realm and Weiling Realm merge, this suppression should dissipate."
——
When Wei Yunqing regained consciousness, she had not yet opened her eyes. A clear dripping reached her ears. In a flash of memory, she recalled fleeing from the Stone Lin's attack. Pain flared in her dantian and a groan slipped out.
When she finally forced her eyes open, she found herself in a very dark cave. The dripping came from water beading off the ceiling. A briny sea-scent filled her nose.
"What is this place?"