I am a Late Bloomer in the Immortal World

Chapter 456: Soul-Searching Hong Jing, Forced to Freeze

Although Wei Tu and Cao Mi hadn’t managed to figure out who Hong Jing’s backup was, or whether she knew about the space tunnel and the Great Cang Immortal Cultivation Realm, they were certain the cave wouldn’t be dangerous for the time being.After all, the best chance for Hong Jing to make a move was yesterday, right after they came out of the space tunnel—during their “weakened phase.”

Since she didn’t strike then and instead tried to lie and trick them, it proved that her current strength wasn’t enough to threaten or defeat them. In other words, Hong Jing’s backup was definitely not nearby, and most likely hadn’t even formed a deep alliance with her or learned about the space tunnel.

…

Once Cao Mi turned cold and cut her off emotionally, Hong Jing didn’t hesitate. She hardened her heart and prepared to self-destruct her Nascent Soul.

Even though Wei Tu had the Yuan Gravity Light to slow her self-destruction, it could only delay it by at most half a day.

So, Wei Tu didn’t dare waste time. He immediately sat cross-legged and started preparing to soul-search Hong Jing’s Nascent Soul.

Half a day might seem long, but for soul-searching a Nascent Soul cultivator of the same realm, it was far from enough.

That’s why Wei Tu narrowed the soul-searching down to four main points:

1. Was Ancestor Luo’s situation real? Was anything being hidden?

2. Who was Hong Jing’s ally? Why did she join forces with them to ambush him and Cao Mi?

3. Had Hong Jing leaked the space tunnel’s secret to cultivators of the overseas cultivation world?

4. Was the info about the Condensed Soul Pill true or false?

Other than the first point, the remaining three were of utmost importance to Wei Tu.

But just as he was about to use the high-grade soul-searching secret art “Hidden Spirit Boat Technique,” Ancestor Chìlóng suddenly spoke up. He said he could perfectly soul-search Hong Jing without missing a thing.

"My soul might be weak, but its essence far surpasses Hong Jing’s. And now that Daoist Wei’s Yuan Gravity Light has her restrained, soul-searching her will be a piece of cake."

Ancestor Chìlóng let out a light laugh, looking proud of himself.

But Wei Tu didn’t show even a flicker of interest. He gave Ancestor Chìlóng a cold glance and said flatly, "No need to trouble you, Daoist. I’d rather handle it myself. If you’d be kind enough to teach me some soul-searching techniques to improve my chances, I’d be very grateful."

Wei Tu wasn’t stupid.

Even though Ancestor Chìlóng now had neither body nor Nascent Soul and only a weak remnant soul left, looking harmless and powerless, that was only on the surface.

More than twenty years ago, if Wei Tu hadn’t intervened, Ancestor Chìlóng would’ve already possessed Sun Chixin’s body and successfully reincarnated.

A tiger with its teeth pulled is still a tiger!

There was no way Wei Tu would foolishly give Ancestor Chìlóng another chance to stir up trouble—by letting his Dragon Glaze Pearl get close to Hong Jing’s Nascent Soul.

If Ancestor Chìlóng turned on him, the threat would be far worse than whatever helper Hong Jing had waiting in the wings.

Wei Tu would rather accept incomplete information from the soul-searching than let Ancestor Chìlóng have even a sliver of opportunity to escape or betray him.

Hearing Wei Tu’s words, Ancestor Chìlóng kept smiling. He cursed Wei Tu in his heart—‘what a sly little brat’—then slinked back into the Dragon Glaze Pearl, staying silent.

Seeing that Ancestor Chìlóng had quieted down, Wei Tu’s gaze flickered slightly, but he ignored him.

Then he murmured, “Hidden Spirit Boat Technique,” and began the soul-searching.

Just as he expected, things didn’t go smoothly.

For the first two points, Hong Jing had clearly been on guard. Every time he tried to probe into those areas, the attempt failed.

Worse yet, each time he touched on a secret, her Nascent Soul’s collapse would accelerate—by several times.

With no other choice, Wei Tu shifted his focus to the remaining two points.

These weren’t tightly guarded secrets, so his investigation went smoothly.

The results were also favorable to him.

“Try again on the first two.” Wei Tu took a deep breath, gathered his divine sense, and started a second round of soul-searching.

Though his soul hadn’t been damaged as badly as Cao Mi’s during the space tunnel transit, he’d still taken quite a hit due to being unprepared.

Later, when working together with Cao Mi to control the Yin-Yang Demon Corpse, he’d burned through even more divine sense.

Now, just being able to squeeze out enough divine sense to soul-search a fellow Nascent Soul cultivator was already impressive.

Half a day passed quickly.

When Hong Jing’s Nascent Soul completely dissolved, Wei Tu frowned, his face thoughtful.

His second attempt at soul-searching yielded the same result—fragments of truth, still incomplete.

But… there was an unexpected gain.

“Wangxi Island.” Wei Tu exhaled a heavy breath and silently repeated the name in his mind.

That island was the place where, over a decade ago, both Hong Jing and Ancestor Luo had met with disaster.

After visiting the island, Hong Jing’s personality had drastically changed. She tricked him and Cao Mi into coming to the overseas cultivation world in order to take them out.

“Wangxi Island is the key to Ancestor Luo’s disappearance and Hong Jing’s betrayal. If I want to uncover the truth behind it all, I’ll have to go there.”

“But for now, getting my hands on the Condensed Soul Pill is more urgent.”

That was Wei Tu’s private thought.

Truth be told, he didn’t care much whether Ancestor Luo lived or died. Her fate had little to do with him.

If it weren’t for her connection to Cao Mi, he wouldn’t have bothered probing into it during the soul-search.

…

After taking a moment to adjust his breathing, Wei Tu walked from outside the cave back in, ready to call Cao Mi and leave together.

When they emerged from the space tunnel, he had already scanned this area with his divine sense.

It was an uninhabited island.

Sparse in spiritual energy—didn’t even count as a first-rank spirit land.

So aside from using it as a temporary stop between the two cultivation realms, staying here longer meant nothing to him.

But just as he was considering how to head toward Yuanshi Island in the Red Algae Sea and bid for the Condensed Soul Pill Hong Jing had mentioned, he noticed something was wrong with Cao Mi.

She was sitting cross-legged, her body covered in layers of frost. If not for the slight rise and fall of her chest, she would’ve looked exactly like a corpse frozen to death in a snowy plain.

“She sealed her seven apertures… and blocked her five senses?”

Wei Tu stepped closer and scanned her condition with divine sense, his brow deeply furrowed.

Back in the space tunnel, Cao Mi had used this same technique to protect herself—sealing off her senses to avoid damage from the spatial pull on her soul.

But now, there was no such danger.

That meant, to Wei Tu’s eyes, she had only one reason to use this method again.

Her soul injury was far too severe—so bad it couldn’t heal on its own.

So she could only freeze herself like this, using the technique to delay the onset of her wounds.

“You really trust me.” Wei Tu couldn’t help shaking his head, a thought rising in his heart.

This method was indeed effective.

But under normal circumstances, unless the surroundings were absolutely safe, no cultivator would willingly put themselves in such a completely defenseless state.