A Mortal's Start in the Spirit Beast Mountain

Chapter 244 News about Wen Tianren

"We're finally...we're almost there for the Sea King Sect's secret realm!"

The cultivator surnamed Yan was breathing slightly rapidly, his eyes filled with fervor. Without further hesitation, he skillfully placed the four black beads into the grooves in the center of the compass, one by one, according to their specific orientations.

As the last bead returned to its place, the cultivator surnamed Yan took a deep breath, made a strange hand seal, and chanted incantations, slowly injecting his pure magical power into the dark red compass.

"Buzz—!"

A deep hum resounded, and the dark red compass seemed to awaken from a long slumber, suddenly bursting forth with a rich, blood-red light! The light was not dazzling, but rather like viscous blood plasma, flowing and enveloping the entire compass and its four round beads.

The four black beads in the groove trembled violently at the same time, their black surfaces rapidly being stained and assimilated by the crimson color, transforming into four eerie blood beads. Even more chillingly, within the blood beads, blurry phantoms seemed to struggle, emerge, and rotate in the light!

If Luo Ming were here, he would be shocked to discover that the outlines and spirit of those four rapidly spinning blurry phantoms were strikingly similar to the appearances of his four main spirit beasts—the Xuan Turtle, the Azure Dragon, the Wind Fox, and the Fat Sun Bird!

Although it was blurry and indistinct, the unique bloodline aura and attribute characteristics were somehow captured and manifested by this strange compass!

"Good! Good! Good!" The cultivator surnamed Yan exclaimed three times, his fingers trembling with excitement. "The four elemental bloodlines are all gathered here! Although I only indirectly absorbed a trace of essence blood through the 'Mother and Child Blood-Identifying Beads,' and it's not the true original essence blood, it's enough to initially activate this Four Elemental Spirit Disc! Hahaha, it wasn't in vain that I spent decades of my life here."

His gaze burned as he stared intently at the slowly rotating crimson compass, and once again made a hand seal, aiming at the center of the crimson compass.

The compass glowed even brighter, projecting a hazy light screen from its center. Within the light screen, a simplified map of a sea was vaguely visible, containing several islands of varying shapes. If Luo Ming were here, he would recognize one of the islands at a glance, and near that island, a bright spot of light was flashing!

The cultivator surnamed Yan narrowed his eyes, staring at the bright spot of light, and frowned, saying, "The shapes of the islands near this spot of light look somewhat familiar."

Meanwhile, at a relatively quiet street corner in Tianxing City, Luo Ming had changed into an ordinary dark blue robe, altered his appearance, and concealed most of his Core Formation stage spiritual pressure, making him inconspicuous.

He stopped in front of a small shop called "General Store". The shop was old and sold low-level talismans and materials, with few customers.

Luo Ming pushed open the door, and the bell on the door rang crisply. Behind the counter, an old shopkeeper who looked drowsy opened his eyes, saw Luo Ming, and immediately put on a professional, enthusiastic smile: "Fellow Daoist, what would you like to order? Our shop may be small, but our goods are of high quality..."

Before he could finish speaking, Luo Ming had already approached. Without saying a word, he flipped his palm, and a golden token, about half the size of a palm and engraved with an intricate star palace pattern, appeared in his hand and was quietly placed on the counter.

The old shopkeeper's smile froze instantly, his eyes losing all sleepiness and transforming into a sharp glint. He carefully picked up the token, his fingers tracing the surface patterns, then infusing it with a tiny wisp of magic to examine it, his expression becoming extremely solemn. After a moment, he respectfully returned the token to Luo Ming with both hands, saying in a low voice, "Honored guest, please follow me."

He stepped out from behind the counter, gesturing for Luo Ming to follow. They passed through a narrow passageway piled with clutter at the back of the shop and arrived at a seemingly ordinary wall. The old shopkeeper made a few hand seals and cast them on a certain spot on the wall, which silently slid open, revealing a staircase leading downwards. At the end of the staircase was a secret room equipped with soundproofing and divine sense detection arrays. The furnishings were simple, consisting of only a table and two chairs.

"Please have a seat, honored guest. What can I do for you?" The old shopkeeper stood up straight, his demeanor completely different from his usual self, clearly not the real shopkeeper.

Luo Ming put away the token and got straight to the point: "I need detailed information about Wen Tianren, the successor of the Six Paths Supreme Saint, within the past month, especially his guards. The more detailed the information, the better."

Upon hearing this, the old shopkeeper's eyes flashed with understanding, clearly familiar with the name "Wen Tianren." He pondered for a moment, then said, "Wen Tianren is a top-tier figure below the Nascent Soul stage. His whereabouts are shrouded in secrecy, and intelligence about him is invaluable. However, your esteemed guest possesses a token with sufficient authority to access such information. Please wait a moment."

He turned and walked to a wall in the secret chamber, casting his spell again. A pattern of spiritual light, resembling a star map, appeared on the wall. He tapped his fingers repeatedly, seemingly searching for something. After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, he withdrew his hand, and the spiritual light on the wall faded. The old shopkeeper walked to the table, took out a blank jade slip, pressed it to his forehead, entered the information, and then handed it to Luo Ming.

"According to the intelligence we recently gathered, Wen Tianren left Saint Demon Island about 25 days ago. His route was erratic, but in the past ten days, there have been three relatively credible traces showing that he appeared in a remote sea area about a month's journey west of Red Sand Island."

That sea area has scattered islands, many undercurrents, and little spiritual energy, making it a rare destination for cultivators.

Our people were unable to get close enough to confirm his exact actions, but they sensed brief but intense fluctuations of magical energy in that area, suggesting a magical battle or the activation of some kind of restriction, before it subsided. This is the area where he has been most active and acted most abnormally in the past month.

Luo Ming took the jade slip and immersed his divine sense into it. The information recorded inside was slightly more detailed than what the shopkeeper had described, marking several possible coordinate ranges and including a rudimentary known nautical chart of that sea area. One of the coordinate ranges made his gaze slightly narrow.

"West of Red Sand Island... a remote sea area..." Luo Ming murmured to himself, and the image of a deserted island appeared in his mind—jawy black reefs, scorching subterranean fire and eerily cold yin energy coexisting, the Fat Sun Bird successfully advancing to level five on the island...

"Could he also be eyeing that island? Besides the peculiar environment of the island where earth fire and yin veins intertwine, is there something else hidden there?" Luo Ming calmly put away the jade slip, then took out two mid-grade spirit stones and placed them on the table, nodding to the old shopkeeper: "Thank you for your trouble."

"It's my duty. Please take your leave, esteemed guest. If you need to contact me again, you may still come to this shop," the old shopkeeper said respectfully, seeing Luo Ming out of the secret room and all the way to the shop entrance.

A moment later, Luo Ming calmly walked out of the "General Store," determined his direction, and headed straight for the teleportation array area within Tianxing City.

This place, which looks like an ordinary shop, is actually an intelligence hideout. If it weren't for the token given to him by Jin Qing, Luo Ming would probably have had to go to the Kuli Alliance, one of the four major merchant alliances, to get information about Wen Tianren.

Besides their shared businesses, the four major merchant alliances each have their own areas of expertise. For example, the Treasure Weapon Alliance excels in weapon crafting, which is at the pinnacle of the entire Chaotic Star Sea, while the Laborer Alliance is skilled in intelligence gathering, assassination, and security.

However, the price at the Kuli Alliance is more than ten times higher than here. This is only because Wen Tianren is quite high-profile and never hides his whereabouts. If he needed information that was extremely difficult to obtain, a single piece of information would probably be worth a fortune.

As he walked, he processed the information he had gathered, his mind racing: "A man like Wen Tianren would never linger in such a remote sea area without a reason, and there might even be signs of him casting spells. Although the environment of that deserted island is peculiar, it wouldn't hold much appeal for someone with Wen Tianren's background... unless there really is some unknown secret there."

He recalled the place where Wen Tianren and Han Laomo fought their battle. That island seemed to be a place with extremely heavy yin energy, as if it hid some kind of altar.

"Could it be such a coincidence? No... that island was simply filled with yin energy; it didn't have any fire veins." Luo Ming shook his head inwardly, thinking that perhaps he was overthinking it.

There are many places with heavy Yin energy in the cultivation world. That island is probably just a special case where the fire vein and the Yin vein are intertwined.

The most urgent task is to find Wen Tianren and plot against the Eight Gates Golden Light Mirror. Since Wen Tianren has appeared in that sea area, we can go and investigate. Perhaps we can find his whereabouts or clues to his purpose.

Upon arriving at the teleportation hall and paying the teleportation fee, Luo Ming stepped into the teleportation array leading to "Red Sand Island." As the array activated, a dazzling yellow light engulfed him.

The teleportation array on Red Sand Island dimmed, and Luo Ming stepped outside. A salty sea breeze, carrying a familiar, slightly hot spiritual energy, rushed towards him. Before him lay a somewhat rudimentary but bustling dockside market, and in the distance, the iconic, dark red rocks of Red Sand Island. Twenty years had passed in the blink of an eye for a cultivator, and the island's scenery was almost identical to his memory.

"Back here again." Luo Ming felt a little emotional, and couldn't help but recall the time when he went deep into the underground mine for Geng Jing, which happened to coincide with the Nascent Soul Ceremony of the Liu family patriarch, ultimately leading to a fight between two Nascent Soul cultivators.

He is now at the peak of the mid-stage of Core Formation, and his strength is incomparable to what it was back then. The Gold-Eating Insects are also no longer what they used to be.

"Once we resolve Wen Tianren's matter, if we have enough time, perhaps we can explore that underground mine again. The amount of Geng essence we obtained back then was far too little; the refined Geng metal energy was far from enough to temper a natal magic weapon. If we could obtain some more..." This thought flashed through his mind.

He did not linger on the island. After briefly determining the direction, a faint light flashed on his body, and he transformed into an inconspicuous cyan light, silently leaving Red Sand Island and speeding towards the remote sea area to the west as indicated in the intelligence.

About half an hour after Luo Ming left, in the central area of ​​Red Sand Island, deep within the Liu family's territory.

In a secluded courtyard shrouded by a tight array, a beautiful female cultivator dressed in a light green dress stood respectfully outside the stone door of a secret chamber.

If Luo Ming were here, he would definitely recognize this woman as Liu Su, whom he had met briefly at the gathering in Jinqing Cave.