After returning to the sect that day, Zhang Ze first met with the Pavilion Master in the name of Wang, and then he took Chen Qin to find Lily and Mei'Er.
Mei'Er was easy to find; she was reading in her boudoir with a flushed face, full of the joys of spring.
But Liu Lili was missing.
Liu Lili was not seen in the Outer Sect, nor had she been to the workshop these days.
Zhang Ze also searched her residence and found that Liu Lili's money was still hidden in the compartment under her bed.
Theoretically, if the money is there, Lily should be there.
Since she didn't abscond with the money, Lily should still be within the Sword Pavilion's range.
She shouldn't be dead; every five minutes Zhang Ze checked the system interface, and Lily's big face was still brightly lit and not greyed out.
...
Zhang Ze, holding the Earth Listening Disc, stepped over a fallen tree.
Mei'Er, Chen Qin, and others were elsewhere in the Sword Pavilion looking for Lily, and only Zhang Ze was in Celestial Driver Valley.
"Lily? Give a shout if you're alive!"
No one responded.
"The cultivation system of this world is indeed problematic," Zhang Ze muttered.
The land of the Four Continents lacks cultivation dharma methods and techniques related to the Divine Soul and Illusion Techniques.
Spirit Recognition Technique is indeed an unconventional approach, but it's only a one-sided injection of knowledge and information, and it's completely impossible to perform reverse extraction or refinement.
The high-level cultivation techniques recorded in the exchange system of various sects are all devoid of this aspect.
Those soul searching and soul-stealing techniques that could instantly refine memories described in novels of previous lifetimes.
On the land of the Four Continents, no one can achieve it.
Even Zhengyi cannot do it.
To weave an Illusion Realm, one can only rely on rare ancient evil artifacts like the Spiritual Snake statue, and even so, the resulting Illusion Realm has many flaws.
Otherwise, capturing the Demon Path would not be so troublesome.
Righteous Path masters could just fly out every day, sweep with Divine Sense, and catch them all.
Zhang Ze once discussed this matter with his master and Pavilion Master Zhengyi, but the two old men spoke so esoterically that Zhang Ze, with his limited cultivation, couldn't understand a bit.
To sum it up, it's like they said, "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. You don't know now means you don't know, and when you know, you'll know."
"I should have given Lily a Sound Transmission Jade," Zhang Ze muttered.
"But don't I have a bit too many Sound Transmission Jades on me?" he glanced at the row of Jade Pendants hanging from his waist.
Except for the one from Song Qingpao, which he had hidden, he wore on his waist the Sound Transmission Jade Pendants belonging to Chen Qin, Mei'Er, Lin Feng, Qiao Lezhi, and others, jingling as he walked.
"Sound Transmission?" Looking at this string of Jade Pendants, Zhang Ze suddenly had an idea.
The principle of the Sound Transmission Jade is simple: a Sound Transmission Stone is split into two, engraved with two arrays of yin and yang.
The arrays resonate, enabling mutual sound transmission between the two Sound Transmission Jades while preventing a third one from eavesdropping.
The logic of the Earth Listening Disc is somewhat similar to the Sound Transmission Jade.
The premise is that Lily's thought process aligns with his.
Everyone's Divine Sense has slight differences, and to reduce the cost of the Earth Listening Disc, Liu Lili did not custom make it for each buyer like an Artifact Refiner.
Instead, she used a mechanical combination to set up an adjustable array.
This array can be adjusted to match the user's Divine Sense, achieving accurate reception within a certain range, much like the Sound Transmission Jade.
Because the initial testers of the Earth Listening Disc were Zhang Ze, Chen Qin, and Lily.
So Zhang Ze knows the array matching Liu Lili's Divine Sense.
If Lily were constantly sending out signals like a telegraph machine and wasn't far away, it might be possible to find her using the Earth Listening Disc.
Zhang Ze turned the mechanism on the Earth Listening Disc, adjusting it to Lily mode.
Zhang Ze held up the Earth Listening Disc, waiting for a long time.
But nothing happened.
Perhaps the distance was too far, or maybe Lily's thought process didn't match Zhang Ze's, but there was no reaction at all.
Though there was no mutual understanding, there was a touch of drama.
A small sphere that had been offline for a long time made its entrance.
Perhaps Zhang Ze's action of raising the Earth Listening Disc was too exaggerated, as the small sphere rolled out from Zhang Ze's pocket.
After bouncing a few times on the ground, the small sphere seemed to wake up and began to hop around Zhang Ze in circles.
Until the small sphere jumped onto the Earth Listening Disc.
The black iron sand on the Earth Listening Disc started to move.
[Boss, save me]
[Going to die, going to die]
[Save, save, save]
Zhang Ze removed the small sphere from the Earth Listening Disc, and the words disappeared.
Putting it back onto the Earth Listening Disc, the words reappeared.
Though the principle wasn't clear, it could be researched later—saving Lily was the priority now.
However, searching for people and exploring was a skill, a skill that Zhang Ze was evidently not proficient in.
Following the distress signal sent by Lily, Zhang Ze descended to the bottom of the valley, where piles of fallen leaves exuded a moldy smell. Perhaps it was an illusion, but Zhang Ze smelled the sea.
Zhang Ze remembered Grandpa Wang's little historical stories.
It is said that some millions of years ago, the entire East Continent was an expansive ocean.
After the Primordial Gods and Demons War, the Earth's veins were severed here, the sea air vanished, and the ocean turned into land.
Celestial Driver Valley, in ancient times, was said to be the nesting place for sea-devouring gods and demons.
Zhang Ze felt that the story of the East Continent once being an ocean might be true, but the part about gods and demons nesting was probably false.
Because Zhang Ze had found three versions of the story about Celestial Driver Valley in the Library Pavilion.
They are the "gods and demons nesting egg-laying theory," the "Fire God riding Water God theory," and the "Demon Beast drank the sea dry theory."
Elder Wang was currently working on refining a fourth version.
While recalling the specific content of the fourth version, Zhang Ze fell into a ditch.
With a misstep, Zhang Ze's foot sank deep into the fallen leaves, revealing a big hole.
The cave's walls were smooth and moist as if coated with some sticky liquid, providing no foothold.
Moreover, the cave seemed to have some sort of Restriction, making it impossible to use Light Body techniques or any other skills that would normally allow one to leap effortlessly through the air.
Zhang Ze drew his sword to stab into the right wall of the cave, but it struck nothing, and in the darkness, a great force snatched the treasure sword. Caught off guard, Zhang Ze lost his grip on the sword, finally falling to the bottom.
"Hey there, Boss!"
Lily's voice came from the darkness.
"Call me Senior Brother." Zhang Ze tried to get up but felt he had nowhere to support himself; around him was something soft like mycelium.
"I'm not a Sword Pavilion disciple, why should I call you Senior Brother?" Lily's voice was full of vigor. "Boss, are you here to rescue me or to die alongside me?"
"To rescue you, but where is this place?" Zhang Ze asked.
"How would I know? This is your Seventh Sword Pavilion's territory. You're asking me?"
"What is this sticky stuff?" Zhang Ze felt a tingling numbness in his hands, clearly due to these soft things around him.
"Boss, you'd better stay away from this stuff. It can eat people, I..."
Zhang Ze's heart skipped a beat, and he couldn't help but recall all sorts of bizarre comics and many strange abstract works he'd seen in his previous life.
From his Hundred Treasures Bag, Zhang Ze took out a Luminous Pearl and shone it in the direction of Lily's voice.
However, nothing bizarre or explicit appeared in sight.
The area where Lily was located was covered with dense mycelium, and a giant metal cocoon protected Lily within. Through the gaps in the cocoon, Zhang Ze saw Lily sitting inside, gnawing on a piece of dry bread.
"Want some, Boss?"