"Heh heh, it's Fellow Daoist Yuan and Fellow Daoist Hong, what a pleasure," just as Yuan Ming was scanning his surroundings, he was brought back to focus by a male voice.

He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man and a woman walking shoulder to shoulder towards him.

Both of them looked quite young, the man tall and slender with a virile aura, the woman statuesque with a sharp gaze, resembling a javelin at first glance, quite unlike ordinary women.

Yuan Ming recognized the two as Long Chong from Thousand Dragon Island and Qiong Yun from Red Rain Island.

"So it's Fellow Daoist Long and Fellow Daoist Qiong," Yuan Ming said politely while internally remaining on guard.

In the Eastern Sea Islands, power was fragmented. While it seemed disorganized, due to interests, territories, race, and other factors, many small groups had formed.

For instance, Thousand Snake Island, Bijiao Island, and Water Ape Island were all half-human, half-demon of the Alien Clan. Even though they sometimes disputed over interests, they always advanced and retreated together on major issues.

Golden Turtle Island, Kongling Island, and Earth Beauty Island had a rather close relationship as well, in order to counter Fusang Island.

And then there were Thousand Dragon Island, Red Rain Island, and Karmic Fire Island which, being close to the outer sea and to each other, were rather intimate.

There was a Violent Sea Area near the Three Islands where the weather was horribly severe. The Flood Dragon Clan, some of the most famous demon beasts in the East Sea, lived there. To withstand the Flood Dragons, Thousand Dragon Island, Red Rain Island, and Karmic Fire Island formed an alliance to lend each other support.

Yuan Ming had eliminated Cui Yu from Karmic Fire Island in the third round, so he suspected that these two might not have come with good intentions.

"Heh heh, Fellow Daoist Yuan, please don't misunderstand. The Immortal Fruit Conference is a contest of abilities, after all. You defeated Cui Yu fair and square in the competition, and the two of us are not so narrow-minded as to seek revenge," Long Chong said with a smile.

Qiong Yun didn't speak, her calm expression also indicating she bore no malice.

"It seems I was overthinking, please forgive me. May I know what advice do you two have for coming here?" Yuan Ming inquired, clasping his hands together.

"Advice would be too presumptuous. Fellow Daoist Yuan, your Divine Skills are indeed remarkable, and the two of us greatly admire that. Of course, the methods of Fellow Daoist Hong of Blood Bird's Nest Island are also very impressive—who wouldn't want to make friends?" Long Chong said with a sincere look in his eyes, not appearing to be in disguise.

Wulu knew that they weren't targeting him, so he quickly declined any suggestion of his own merit and stepped aside.

Yuan Ming activated his Emotion Manipulation Divine Ability, sensing Long Chong's emotions, and he found that the man indeed bore no animosity toward him but actually a fair bit of friendliness. Qiong Yun seemed to feel the same.

While chatting with the two, he quietly speculated about their true intentions.

At that moment, the sound of footsteps came from inside the Void Temple, and a middle-aged man with greyish-white hair and a desolate expression emerged. He was a Nascent Soul cultivator from Fusang Island.

"That's enough, everyone come in," the desolate man spoke indifferently.

The seventeen people outside heard him and gathered, following him into the entrance of the Void Temple.

Behind the door was not the spacious hall they had anticipated, but a dimly lit passageway, slightly inclined upwards like a gentle slope.

Yuan Ming looked around and noticed the hall was enveloped by that invisible force.

Outside the hall, the sensation wasn't very clear, but now that he had entered the Void Temple, he had a more intuitive feeling of this invisible force. His Divine Sense, Mana, and even Physical Body were greatly restricted.

Especially his Divine Sense, which could only extend a mere ten feet.

"Could it be triggered by the Ancient Transmission Array?" Yuan Ming privately conjectured.

The others also seemed to have noticed the anomaly, but nobody spoke up about it.

The inclined passage quickly came to an end, and a new pathway appeared on the left, sloping downwards this time.

The group continued forward and soon came across a third passage.

"Just how many passageways are there..." Wulu couldn't help but mutter.

Yuan Ming slowed his pace and raised his hand to touch the walls of the passageway, feeling a cool, coarse sensation.

"What's wrong?" Wulu stopped and asked.

"Nothing, I just feel something strange about this place," Yuan Ming whispered.

He could faintly sense that nature's spiritual energy within the Void Temple followed the pathway they had just traversed, slowly flowing forward.

Besides nature's spiritual energy, it seemed other energies were mixed in.

Unfortunately, his Divine Sense could only extend ten feet, unable to fully uncover the truth.

Yuan Ming was slightly annoyed. The several times he had used the Stealing Heaven Tripod to probe Fusang City before, he hadn't paid attention to this place, otherwise he might have grasped some clues.

Now, it was too late to enter the Stealing Heaven Tripod to investigate.

Although Xi Ying was inside the Stealing Heaven Tripod, since the tripod had already acknowledged a master, others sitting on the Jade Lotus Platform couldn't activate its Desire Power.

"Wait, my real body can't enter the Stealing Heaven Tripod, but my soul splitting can. I have never tried it before. I wonder, if the first soul sits on the White Jade Lotus Platform, can it receive the boost of Desire Power?" A thought suddenly occurred to Yuan Ming. Immediately, he commanded the first soul in his Sea of Consciousness to fly out, entering the Incense Burner Mark on his arm and into the Stealing Heaven Tripod Space.

The first soul turned into a semi-transparent figure and sat down on the White Jade Lotus Platform.

Boom!

The Desire Power surged out from within the platform, merging into the first soul.

Yuan Ming was overjoyed and quickly manipulated the Soul Power of the first soul, descending through the Desire Power anchor point provided by Miao Xian.

The first soul's Soul Power was far inferior to Yuan Ming's main body. Even with the support of Desire Power, it only barely reached the Love Witch Realm, and its investigative range was limited to less than half of Fusang City. Miao Xian was currently in the Wuzu District, unable to see the situation at the Void Temple here.

However, this matter was not enough to stump him.

Yuan Ming used his Divine Thought to communicate with the Three-eyed Crow in his Spiritual Beast Bag, asking it to pray to the Nether Moon God. The first soul's Soul Power descended along this anchor point, easily enveloping the entire Void Temple.

The structure of the great hall appeared before his eyes, with many passageways crisscrossing inside, as many as twenty or thirty, like a labyrinth.

At the end of the passageways was a Stone Hall, exceptionally empty, without a single supporting Stone Pillar or any decoration on the four walls.

A silver Formation several zhangs in size sat in the middle, surrounded by eight silver-white Stone Pillars about a zhang tall, deeply embedded in the ground and integrated with the Formation.

The Stone Pillars were engraved with strange runes, similar to the space transfer Forbidden Array Patterns within the Shura Palace, but much more complex.

"Is this the Ancient Transmission Array of Fusang Island?" Yuan Ming thought to himself.

At this moment, Xu Fu, White Scale Master, Queen Ming Kong, and more than a dozen other Nascent Soul cultivators were sitting around the silver Formation, each holding a silver Array Flag, infusing streams of silver light into the Teleportation Array.

Yuan Ming glanced at it twice, withdrew his gaze, and carefully sensed the flow of Spiritual Energy within the Void Temple.

Just as he had anticipated earlier, the nature's spiritual energy within the Void Temple moved along the passageways and eventually poured into the Ancient Transmission Array, stored within the eight silver Stone Pillars.

The silver Stone Pillars were somewhat similar to Void Stones, but their insides were murky. They stored a large amount of Spiritual Power, seemingly to stimulate the operation of the Transmission Array.

However, he was very curious about one thing.

Why would the nature's spiritual energy automatically flow along the passageways and into the Transmission Array without a single Array Rune on the pathways and stone walls of the Void Temple?

Yuan Ming inspected it several times but still found nothing, ultimately sighing at the unfathomable depth of the Ancient Transmission Array.

He didn't unravel the mystery of how the Void Temple attracted nature's spiritual energy. However, he did manage to investigate the unusual energy contained in the Spiritual Energy of the hall. Surprisingly, it was Space Power, although it was quite mixed and far less pure than the Space Power in Void Stones.

As for the source of this Space Power, it was from the sky.

Threads and streaks of Space Power descended from the heavens, joining the nature's spiritual energy and pouring into the eight silver Stone Pillars.

Yuan Ming used the Soul Power of his first soul to probe upwards, trying to find the origin of the Space Power.

The Silver Crystal Stone on the Stealing Heaven Tripod Altar also required Space Power. If he could find a way to harness Space Power, it would be greatly beneficial to him!

Unfortunately, even with Yuan Ming's first soul pushing its Soul Power to the limit, it still failed to sense the origin of the Space Power.

He couldn't wait to leave and find a safe place to enter with his own body and clarify everything.

"I must maintain a normal state of mind. After all, the Void Temple has always been here, and I can investigate it after returning from the Secret Realm," Yuan Ming let out a breath, suppressing his emotions.

Although the space power that gathered was far less than the spiritual energy, over time, the eight silver Stone Pillars had already stored quite a lot.

"With the wealth of Fusang Island, as much nature's spiritual energy as desired can be brought in. It seems that what restricts the use of the Ancient Transmission Array is Space Power, with three months of accumulation needed for one use," Yuan Ming thought to himself.

Just then, Yuan Ming and the others, following the melancholy man, finally arrived at the Stone Hall where the Transmission Array was located.

Xu Fu and the others had finished casting, and the Spiritual Power contained within the eight silver stones had doubled, though it seemed very unstable.

The Ancient Transmission Array shone with extremely bright light and revolved rapidly, stirring up gusts of wind within the Stone Hall.

Yuan Ming secretly observed the Nascent Soul cultivators. Their attention was all on the Transmission Array and they paid no heed to Wulu, apparently not having seen through Wulu's Disguise.

Not only that, but he also noticed something else.

The Divine Sense that descended veered to the side, where a bald, red-nosed Nascent Soul cultivator from Fusang Island stood.

The man appeared lax, occasionally taking a sip from the wine gourd on his waist. There was nothing wrong with his demeanor or expression, but Yuan Ming's Divine Sense was supported by the Stealing Heaven Tripod, and nothing could escape his investigation.

The appearance and aura of the red-nosed cultivator were a Disguise, hiding someone else inside.

Yuan Ming recognized the person. It was the Tide Maker, Jia Sifang.

"Why is Jia Sifang here? And why is he disguised as another person using a secret technique? Could this be the task Ni Mu assigned Jia Sifang?" Yuan Ming thought to himself and informed Xi Ying of the situation.

"So that's how it is. Ni Mu was plotting this all along..." Xi Ying wasn't surprised.

"Do you want me to use a method to expose Jia Sifang?" Yuan Ming asked through telepathy.

Though the first soul was weak, it could still take Jia Sifang by surprise and reveal his true form.

"There's no need. Don't concern yourself with this person. Just focus on the competition in the Secret Realm. Leave Jia Sifang and Ni Mu to me," Xi Ying said.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Ming knew that Xi Ying had a plan in mind and said no more.

"Golden Cloud Fairy pays respects to all the predecessors," Golden Cloud Fairy was the first to salute the assembly of Nascent Soul cultivators in the Stone Hall.

The others followed suit with their greetings.

"Everyone, there's no need for formalities. The modified Transmission Array can't hold for long, so hurry and enter the Formation!" Xu Fu continued to work his spells with both hands and nodded slightly to Yuan Ming and the others, urging them on.

Seeing this, the seventeen people didn't dare to delay and made their way towards the Teleportation Array.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.