Ye Fan spent some time searching the surrounding world with Dao Zhen, but found no clues related to Sect Master Ling.

Ye Fan also used his own Spiritual Sense to investigate. Unfortunately, there wasn’t even the slightest clue of Sect Master Ling, or of any mysterious powers. It was as if the mysterious power had never appeared in the entire secret realm. Ye Fan even suspected that Sect Master Ling, Jiuyou Su Girl, and Shen Yan had either left the Pan Gu secret realm on their own, or they were taken out, otherwise they wouldn’t have disappeared so completely.

Returning to the edge of the Sea of Death, Ye Fan gazed at the world in front of him and suddenly felt an inexplicable sadness. He didn’t know if he could find any clues, but he knew that, for now, he couldn’t find Shen Yan, which was quite a blow to him.

Moreover, this meant that the people around him could be in danger at any time, and he had to spend most of his energy protecting them, rather than facing the heavenly tribulation.

"I said before, I can help you very little. If you don’t believe it, then forget it. I’ve done all I can!" Dao Zhen, feeling like a toy played with by Ye Fan, was somewhat angry and said, "Can you send me away now?"

"Where do you want to go?" Ye Fan asked.

Dao Zhen said coldly, "Since you don’t want to keep me in the secret realm, fearing I might threaten your notifications, then send me out of the secret realm. I’d rather be outside than endure your bullying inside!"

Dao Zhen seemed very rational at this moment. Ye Fan didn’t know what this woman was thinking, but he knew one thing for sure, she must have some scheme. With her cultivation of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years, her mental state was almost equal to that of ancient cultivators. To say she had no covetousness for the secret realm was something Ye Fan himself couldn’t believe.

"Since you want to leave, I’ll fulfill your wish, but I won’t just let you leave like that..." said Ye Fan, "First, come back to Tiancheng with me; after I handle things on my end, I will naturally send you away. Let’s go!"

Dao Zhen didn’t expect that wanting to leave would become an issue, nor that Ye Fan actually wouldn’t send her away right away. She could only follow Ye Fan back to Tiancheng.

Even though Dao Zhen’s cultivation level was already very high, she still hadn’t mastered the skill of instant teleportation within the secret realm, requiring Ye Fan to directly take her to Tiancheng within the secret realm.

Back in Tiancheng, Dao Zhen found the scenery before her somewhat blurry and said: "I’ve been away from the secret realm for 120,000 years, and many things have actually happened during these 120,000 years. If we calculate based on Pan Gu’s secret realm’s time, there should have been countless cultivators emerging in these 120,000 years, but how many have truly ascended?"

"120,000 years? From the middle ages to now, it’s been 120,000 years?" Ye Fan frowned and asked.

"Don’t you know there was once a time reversal in the Middle Ages? Whatever, for you later generations, this matter isn’t all that important. In the world of ordinary people, whether time flows backwards isn’t very significant, but because of this transfer of stardust and cultivation, the power structures within Pan Gu’s secret realm have undergone earth-shaking changes and are still influenced by this now!" Dao Zhen finished speaking and looked at everything in Tiancheng, saying, "Now I finally understand, it turns out Tiancheng has always been occupied by mysterious cultivator forces. Previously, I thought this was just due to the control of some evil outsiders, but back then I was solely focused on ascending, completely uninterested in studying this place..."

Sang Yuan knew Ye Fan had returned and had already greeted him. Facing Ye Fan, Sang Yuan was always so humble and respectful.

"Young Master!" Sang Yuan saluted.

Ye Fan waved his hand, looked up to the distance, and seemed to sense a mysterious power approaching. But upon closer inspection, this was not a mysterious force at all; it was Xi He’s figure. At this moment, Xi He was carrying a strong elemental force, the same force that enabled Sang Yuan to create so many illusions.

"I’ll first come back to see the people around me. Sang Yuan, you stay with her, just as on Earth before. After I finish dealing with the current matters, I’ll take you out to handle our affairs!" Ye Fan said.

Sang Yuan roughly understood; since Ye Fan didn’t perceive the mysterious power’s existence in the Pan Gu secret realm, he would certainly take her and Dao Zhen to the cosmic space to search, because given that Shen Yan and the others were not in the secret realm, they must have been taken out of it and wouldn’t leave the human realm. Ye Fan would not stop until he found them.

...

...

Ye Fan arrived at the central part of Tiancheng, which was also Sang Yuan’s courtyard.

Here, Li Zhaojun and Min Shang had always been present, and at this time, both were still cultivating, although Li Zhaojun seemed to have acquired some strange cultivation aura. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"You’re back?" Li Zhaojun looked at Ye Fan with a very complex look. She now didn’t know how to define her relationship with Ye Fan, originally they were tied as husband and wife, but it seemed Ye Fan still had many things he couldn’t fully accept about her, and she herself was trying hard to become better, so Ye Fan could unconditionally accept her affections.

As for Min Shang’s world, it was quite simple. Min Shang just hoped to live her own life and have a life together with Li Zhaojun and Ye Fan.

"Rare to ascend, and it finally let me thoroughly experience what the Immortal Realm is like!" Ye Fan said with some emotion, "Fortunately, my cultivation has also advanced rapidly, otherwise, I wouldn’t know if I could even come out of the Immortal Realm!"

Li Zhaojun rolled her eyes at Ye Fan and said, "Always with the alarmist talk. It’s good you’re here safe and sound. Ye Fan, you should go and report your safety to the two elders!"

"No need, I’m safe, they will naturally know. They should also know I can’t stay idle; even if ascending wasn’t dangerous, I’d still end up doing things to make them worry over time, so there’s no big meaning in explanations. Better to focus on being safe through my actions; that’s the best assurance to them!" Ye Fan said, smiling, and gave Li Zhaojun a hug, saying, "also the best assurance to you and Shang."

"Hmm." Li Zhaojun shyly lowered her head. After seeing Ye Fan, her tone had gradually lacked the same toughness as before and instead had a hint of a soft woman’s shyness, but unfortunately, Ye Fan always viewed her as that figure from their first encounter and never treated her as a demure woman.

Li Zhaojun asked, "This time, are you leaving again after coming back?"

"Alas, no choice. I’m still tracking down clues about the mysterious power. If I don’t go now, it will be even harder to track later on; this mysterious power far exceeds my cultivation. I don’t even know where this power took Shen Yan and the others. If I can’t find this power, I will never be at ease!" Ye Fan said, "Zhaojun, wait for me to return!"