Astro Sovereign’s disappearance very likely had something to do with Nine Underworlds. This was an important clue that could help Yan Zhaoge narrow the search.
However, there still might be many different stories.
If Nine Underworlds was involved in this, it would inevitably take a lot of time and patience.
Once he got the wrong person, then, he would waste tons of time.
However, for Yan Zhaoge, the search for Astro Sovereign was much easier than that for Feng Yunsheng as Astro Sovereign’s cultivation was way more profound than that of Feng Yunsheng.
And instead of keeping an eye on Astro Sovereign, Yan Zhaoge could just pay attention to what was unusual in Nine Underworlds.
With that decision made, Yan Zhaige chose a crack of space that might relate to Nine Underworlds.
In its state of closing, not much Demon Qi could be detected from the crack. So it could be easily neglected by others but not by Yan Zhaoge as he had touched upon the Faceless Devil Scripture.
Flying over the snowfield of World beyond Worlds, he halted in midair before the crack and formed a sword with his index and middle fingers paralleled together before slightly sliding it in the air.
With a faint red light appearing on the tip of his finger, the Sword intent of Immortal Trapping Sword easily split the space crack, gradually revealing a dimensional passageway.
Before stepping into it, Yan Zhaoge turned back and nodded in greeting towards the emptiness in the distance. Then, he carried on his way.
After he vanished, an old man, haggard and hunchbacked with blurry eyes, slowly paced to the entrance of the dimensional passageway.
It was Northern Exalt.
He fixed his gaze at the entrance of the pitch-dark path before him, sighed, and then sat down with his legs crossed.
Even though the path didn’t directly lead to Nine Underworlds and there would be Land of the tranquil stream for Yan Zhaoge to prepare himself, Northern Exalt had to be careful and stay alert.
As the protector of the north, it was one of his top responsibilities to keep an eye on these Lands of the tranquil stream that connected with World beyond Worlds and the Nine Underworlds that might exist in the darkness. Although he would not come into direct contact with Yan Zhaoge, he should naturally come here to do his duty in case of any accidents.
The old man gazed at the dimensional path in silence and muttered, “Troubled times indeed…”
With Northern Exalt watching over the path, Yan Zhaoge had nothing to worry about.
He went right through it, and as space before him began to stop changing its form, endless darkness came into his view.
No stars shed light in the gloomy emptiness, there was only glossy darkness.
At this moment, the emptiness seemed to be tangible, contaminated by extreme filth.
It was the Land of tranquil stream evolved from the emptiness contaminated by Nine Underworlds.
He didn’t stop and continued his way towards the innermost depth of Land of the tranquil stream.
That would be where the Nine Underworlds were.
After a long and arduous journey, he could feel the ghostly aura of Nine Underworlds getting more apparent.
At long last, the Land of the tranquil stream came to an end, but there was dense black fog filling the air, and what was even worse, amid the mist, something ferocious and evil lurked under the blood red radiance.
The overwhelming horror seemed without boundary, just like the sky and the sea.
Yan Zhaoge didn’t hesitate and just stepped into the Devilish Qi.
This time, he felt his Faceless Devil Scripture, Eight Desolaces Thunder Palm, and Six Spirits Demonic Fist had stronger will of their own, becoming more intense and active.
“All believe that as Dao is weak, the Demon will be powerful and vice versa, but truth is, there’re times when both Dao and the Demon are in the growth, like the two sides of a coin.”
Yan Zhaoge was not in a shock. This time, his demoniac nature seemed more naturally to be stirred than before because his cultivation and strength were much improved.
As a result, he progressed in his devilish martial arts, particularly after he had forged Faceless Heavenly Devil incarnate and displayed the Eight Desolaces Thunder Palm recorded in Devil Scripture back when fighting back Brocade Emperor and Cheng Qianhua.
With that fight, he achieved rapid progress on the two profound devilish martial arts.
Thus, as he returned to Nine Underworlds, his demoniac nature would surely be easily stirred.
However, it didn’t bother him at all.
He secretly ran the profound martial art of Peerless Heavenly Scripture and immediately comforted the furious demon inside him.
He took a deep breath and changed into the form of the enormous black Buddha.
Then, the enormous black Buddha stretched out his palms on which unfolded another profound martial art recorded in Devil Scripture.
It was the Earthly Secret Seal, a profound martial art about the Earth which was one of the Eight Extremities of Creation, namely Heaven, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Water, Fire, Mountain, and Ocean.
In the past, of the limited collection of devilish martial arts in the Book Repository of the Heavenly Court’s Divine Palace, the complete Faceless Devilish Scripture was the most powerful one.
The Devilish Scripture of Creation was broken and incomplete.
Among the Eight Extremities of Creation, three of them were collected in Book Repository of Heavenly Court’s Divine Palace.
In addition to the Eight Desolaces Thunder Palm which was about thunder, the Earthly Secret Seal about earth was also one of the three devilish martial arts.
At this moment, based on Faceless Devilish Scripture, Yan Zhaoge turned into an enormous black Buddha to adapt to the Nine Underworlds and to run the Devilish Qi fast.
After that, he began to display the profound martial art of Earthly Secret Seal.
This seal stressed both external martial techniques and internal Qi, and with both combined, there would be many ways to use it.
At this moment, Yan Zhaoge seemed motionless as the ground like the Buddha of Hades, quiet, calm, and wise.
However, the Buddha of Hades seemed to have descended into hell and chosen the devil’s path.
In this state, he could enormously improve his perception of Nine Underworlds.
However, it would not work if he searched for Feng Yunsheng by using this.
In the shadow of what had happened to Exalted Rahu Luminary, Feng Yunsheng kept moving into the depth of Nine Underworlds so as not to be found by others.
As for Astro Sovereign, Yan Zhaoge speculated that he was very likely in a fixed point, guarding something just
like the Sun Seal had been suppressing a crack of Nine Underworlds in the bottom of the abyss in World of Eight Extremities.
Or, Astro Sovereign was forging some sort of treasure by the environment of Nine Underworlds or cultivating esoteric lore, or something else.
Otherwise, Chu Lili would not expect him to pass on a message.
That being the case, Chu Lili must have known for sure that Sword Emperor and Concealed Sovereign could find Astro Sovereign.
On that account, Yan Zhaoge was somewhat confident in finding Astro Sovereign.
Otherwise, it would be like finding a needle in the sea, and if he could have been lucky enough, he would have found Feng Yunsheng long ago.
This time, he randomly chose a place of Land of the tranquil stream to go into Nine Underworlds because he had a plan for a “reverse search”, namely from outside in.
He would go wherever anomalies occurred in the marginal areas, and then searched for Astro Sovereign in that part of Nine Underworlds or the adjacent Land of the tranquil stream.
Displaying the Earthly Secret Seal, Yan Zhaoge was carefully feeling every single tiny vibration of the nearby Underworlds.
From the vibration of all existence in its form, to the vibration of shapeless Qi then to the vibration of space and time, he would not miss any abnormalities.
Eventually, the enormous black Buddha suddenly opened his black eyes, gazing far into the distance.