Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 1509 - 1509 0868 A Bigger Surprise_2

Chapter 1509: Chapter 0868: A Bigger Surprise_2 Chapter 1509: Chapter 0868: A Bigger Surprise_2 Chen Huai handed the teahouse owner a low-grade spirit stone and asked for the best Spirit Tea to be brewed in a pot. After the owner brought the tea, Chen Huai conscientiously poured tea for Qi Tian and Chen Xianyu.

“Great Elder, please have some tea,” he said.

Qi Tian simply nodded indifferently, not reaching for the teacup. He activated the sensing function of the Heavenly Dao Engine regarding its sensitivity to Spirit Qi and began to survey his surroundings. This was what he always did upon arriving at a new place, to get an initial understanding of the environment and to predict whether there were any potential dangers or threats to him.

Qishan Town wasn’t large, and the detection range of the Heavenly Dao Engine far exceeded the size of the town. Soon, Qi Tian received a three-dimensional holographic image from the Heavenly Dao Engine and immediately began to inspect it. He found no one or nothing that could pose a threat to him. Just as Qi Tian was about to relax, suddenly two spots on the holographic image made his eyes involuntarily narrow.

These two spots came from right beside him, and according to the positions, they were none other than Chen Xianyu and Chen Huai, the grandfather and grandson.

Back in the Fiery Cloud Secret Realm, when Qi Tian secretly watched Xu Xinge and Chen Xianyu fight, he had used the Heavenly Dao Engine’s sensing function to scan the two, and he had recorded the spirit force fluctuations of these two Nascent Soul Masters.

Each person’s spirit force fluctuation was as unique as their fingerprints. At least as far as Qi Tian knew, he had never encountered identical spirit force fluctuations. Even if a person made a breakthrough in their cultivation level, their spirit force fluctuations were almost impossible to change. The usual changes were only in intensity.

But now, Qi Tian found Chen Xianyu’s spirit force fluctuation had become different from before, not just an increase or decrease in intensity. The spirit force fluctuation unique to Chen Xianyu had become significantly weaker, and at the same time, there was another spirit force fluctuation present on him. This fluctuation intertwined with Chen Xianyu’s, binding him like a rope would bind a dragon, tightly suppressing and oppressing Chen Xianyu’s spirit force fluctuation so that it couldn’t move.

This was extremely unusual, and Qi Tian immediately realized that something serious had happened to Chen Xianyu. It was very likely that he had come under the control of someone else. Chen Xianyu’s own consciousness was being suppressed, making him involuntary and unable to control his own fate.

In the Cultivation World, there were many methods like this. For example, turning someone into an Immortal Slave, which was a method Qi Tian often used. Even if there were also two spirit force fluctuations present in the same person when turned into an Immortal Slave, the dominant consciousness would still be their own. This was unlike Chen Xianyu’s situation, where his own consciousness was suppressed to the extreme.

In Qi Tian’s mind, a bizarre technique that he had heard of but never seen surfaced—Puppetry Skill. The performance of the two spirit force fluctuations on Chen Xianyu matched many of the rumors about the Puppetry Skill.

The important basis for Qi Tian to make this judgment was not on Chen Xianyu but on Chen Huai.

Qi Tian had a record of Chen Huai’s spirit force fluctuation as well. But now, from the three-dimensional holographic image provided by the Heavenly Dao Engine, it was clear that the spirit force fluctuation of Chen Huai in front of his eyes and the one recorded by Qi Tian had nothing in common at all; they were completely two different people. Furthermore, the spirit force fluctuation on Chen Huai in front of him was exactly the same as the one possessing Chen Xianyu, which meant Chen Huai was the one controlling Chen Xianyu.

Not only that, Qi Tian also discovered that Chen Huai had concealed his true level of cultivation. He is not in the early stage of the Gold Core Realm as he pretended to be, but rather a genuine Nascent Soul Master, likely around the first level of the Nascent Soul Stage—a rather formidable level within the Sacred Cultivation Places of Sui’an City and Wanjie City.

A faint cold smile appeared on the corner of Qi Tian’s mouth. He knew Chen Xianyu would not seek him out for no reason, so eagerly offering him the opportunity to become a Nascent Soul Master. There must be a catch, and indeed, just as he expected, the problem had surfaced. He was curious to see what kind of play Chen Huai, who controlled Chen Xianyu with Puppetry Skill, would perform. Did they truly believe they could manipulate him with just the two of them?

Chen Huai was still unaware that he had been exposed. Besides acting diligently, he didn’t show any anomalies and didn’t initiate conversation with Qi Tian. Instead, he manipulated Chen Xianyu into speaking with Qi Tian, engaging in idle chatter.

Qi Tian responded casually, unsure why Chen Huai was targeting him, but he assumed Chen Huai wasn’t a fool and would have other tricks up his sleeve. Luring him away from Wanjie City was probably just the first step. After leaving Qishan Town, it would be the moment when Chen Huai played his trump card. Qi Tian would surely give him a great surprise at that time.

The three of them had rested at the tea pavilion for almost half an hour when Chen Xianyu’s complexion looked a bit better, and he suggested they could continue on their journey.

The trio stood up and left Qishan Town. Qi Tian had become vigilant, keeping the sensory function of the Heavenly Dao Engine for Spirit Qi turned on at all times, and extending its detection range to the maximum.

During his time in the Fiery Cloud Secret Realm, the Heavenly Dao Engine’s maximum detection range had already expanded to a hundred miles. This meant that within a hundred miles around Qi Tian, everything was within his sensory range. Normally, even cultivators who had reached the Nascent Soul Stage had a Divine Sense sensory range of merely twenty to thirty miles, with some weaker ones not even reaching ten miles.

Of course, cultivators had still invented many methods to see farther, such as the Thousand Miles Mirror developed by Master Huang Feixu of Wanjie City, which had a similar effect and could detect even farther than the sensory limits of the Heavenly Dao Engine.

However, even if someone used special methods to see him from beyond a hundred miles away, Qi Tian was not worried. It didn’t matter if someone could see him; what he needed to prevent was being attacked while being observed. For instance, during his time in the Fiery Cloud Secret Realm, Shi Haoyuan had managed to swing his flying sword at him from a great distance.

What Qi Tian needed to guard against now was precisely that. For this reason, he was not particularly worried. Even if someone had the means to detect him in advance, any attack they launched would first have to enter the sensory range of the Heavenly Dao Engine to reach him. Once inside that range, Qi Tian would detect it immediately, and the distance of a hundred miles would give him plenty of time to react.

After leaving Qishan Town, the three of them each rode their flying swords, heading northeast. This flight lasted more than a day. During this time, Qi Tian had used some specific methods to determine his position relative to Wanjie City and found that he was still within the influence of Wanjie City. However, this realization didn’t offer Qi Tian more of a sense of security. Wanjie City’s sphere of influence was vast, extending tens of thousands of miles. For instance, Great Zhao Nation was under Wanjie City’s influence, but its effect couldn’t be felt there, and ordinary people were completely unaware of Wanjie City’s existence above their heads.

Qi Tian became somewhat impatient. Flying back and forth like this was a waste of time, and he couldn’t wait to uncover the mystery. He asked, “Master, how much longer before we reach our destination?”

Chen Xianyu replied with a smile, “Great Elder, please be patient. According to my memory, if we continue flying for about another thousand miles, we will reach the place where I buried the pills. Then, I can dig them out and hand them over to the Great Elder.”