"Won't these people develop physical problems from entering and leaving Nihility State so many times?" Cat Girl crouched on the eaves, her tail swishing lazily behind her.
Li Ban and Hunyou stood on the roof tiles behind her, watching quietly.
"Of course there will be side effects," Li Ban said. "But that female spirit practitioner is very cautious. She shouldn't have stayed for more than two hours during any of her visits.
"Otherwise, even with infrequent visits, the mist would remember them and target them the next time they came."
"It's that dangerous?" Cat Girl stared at the woman called Sister-in-law, almost as if looking at her past self.
Right then, Sister-in-law suddenly turned around, glancing back with a hint of vigilance.
But with the three of them shielded by the World Without Me spell, she saw nothing. Looking slightly unsettled, she turned back around and continued onward.
"So impressive!" This time, Cat Girl's praise was entirely genuine.
She was a full hundred paces away, yet the woman could vaguely sense her gaze.
"She must have integrated an element with early-warning capabilities," Li Ban noted. "Perhaps she even sublimated it."
He was starting to take an interest in this "Sister-in-law" himself.
Among his numerous elements, he didn't actually possess one that could warn him of enemies like that.
The Silver Kingfisher barely counted.
However, the bird itself was a bit too conspicuous, and it could only provide short-range warnings against a single target.
Still, that element was Good-grade at best. Even if Li Ban was slightly interested, he wouldn't waste time and effort snatching it.
After becoming a Priest, many abilities could be replaced by spells.
The abilities of Good-grade elements were just icing on the cake. Only Excellent-grade elements, which touched upon the laws of the world, could truly elevate a Priest's strength.
Sister-in-law's group gradually moved away. Once they were over five hundred meters out, even Li Ban and the others could no longer track them by sight.
None of them had any intention of following to investigate.
They were here waiting for a Priest of the Mist Realm to receive them.
They just hadn't expected to spot a group of spirit practitioners smuggling themselves across the River of Helplessness during their brief wait.
A short while later, a figure appeared out of thin air upstream.
He wore a white priestly robe; the silver trim instantly identified him as a Star Glow Priest.
Cat Girl stood up and took a position half a step behind Li Ban.
Although Li Ban would protect her, she didn't want to cause him any trouble.
Now was the perfect time to play the obedient subordinate.
Before the man flew over, Hunyou lowered his voice and spoke to Li Ban. "This is Priest Shen Xiang of the Mist Realm. Although he's only at the Star Glow rank, he is a veteran here."
The hidden implication was that Li Ban was a newcomer and shouldn't act arrogantly toward a senior.
If this were the Li Ban of the past, Priest Hunyou wouldn't have bothered to remind him.
But the current Li Ban had not only changed in appearance; his personality had also grown much colder.
Furthermore, he gave Priest Hunyou the distinct impression of being driven by an incredibly strong sense of purpose.
This made him speak and act much more forcefully than before.
Still, this was a common flaw among Star Glow Priests, something they needed to temper and resolve through mental cultivation.
Even though Priest Hunyou had only met Li Ban once before, he still thought very highly of him.
Li Ban nodded, though his expression barely shifted.
They had come to discuss the plan to ambush Xiao Suo. If he acted too weakly, he wouldn't be able to lead the operation.
Since Li Ban had no intention of telling them beforehand that he planned to fuse with Xiao Suo's Witch Embryo Shards, he had to secure control of the mission through other means.
"Priest You, Priest Ban," Priest Shen Xiang said. He was a man of few words, falling silent immediately after the simple greeting.
He didn't even spare a glance for Cat Girl standing behind Li Ban.
Priest Hunyou, carefree and natural, greeted him with a smile. "Priest Xiang, it's truly been a long time. I didn't expect to catch you on your day off."
Faced with the amiable Priest Hunyou, Shen Xiang dropped his stiff expression and smiled as he nodded.
When he smiled, he surprisingly looked a bit shy.
It turned out that his quiet demeanor didn't stem from aloofness, but from social anxiety.
"I'll take you over."
The smile vanished in a flash as Shen Xiang stepped aside, making a gesture of invitation.
Li Ban took to the air, bringing Little Cat with him.
When Priest Shen Xiang had arrived, he had emerged directly from the mist.
Now that they were heading over, they also had to pass through it.
Up in the air, the naked eye couldn't discern anything out of the ordinary. It was only when Li Ban drew close that he noticed the spiritual rhinoceros here was slightly denser.
Still, it was only marginally thicker than anywhere else. If he hadn't been following Priest Shen Xiang, he might not have noticed the subtle shift in concentration at all.
Shen Xiang stepped forward and swiped his hand through the air, almost as if he were wiping a pane of glass.
Immediately, water-like ripples appeared in the air.
Li Ban deliberately shifted his angle of observation, discovering that these ripples could only be seen from one extremely narrow viewpoint.
"A variation of the Spatial Guidance Art?"
Shen Xiang looked at Li Ban in surprise, not expecting him to actually recognize the spell.
The Spatial Guidance Art was a spell that only Priests of the Seventh Tier and above could cast. In fact, many 7th Tier Priests hadn't even heard of it, much less been able to identify it on sight.
Shen Xiang was only at the 6th Tier, so he naturally couldn't cast it. However, he wasn't the one casting the spell; the person actually expending spiritual rhinoceros was on the other side.
As for this transparent camouflage—the ripples visible only from a specific angle—it was a variation of the World Without Me spell.
Since Li Ban had already recognized it, Shen Xiang didn't bother hiding it. "Yes."
He didn't know what else to say, so after admitting it, he plunged straight inside.
Priest Hunyou shook his head with a soft chuckle. "Don't mind him, he really is just like that. Or rather, most of the Priests in the Mist Realm have this sort of dull temperament; otherwise, they wouldn't have joined the Mist Realm Faction to begin with."
With that, Priest Hunyou followed Shen Xiang into the Spatial Guidance Art's concealed halo.
Soon after, Li Ban wrapped an arm around Cat Girl and slipped inside as well.
Passing through the Spatial Guidance Art's halo, Li Ban found himself in an expansive, pristine white hall.
The ceiling soared over ten meters high, and the surroundings were devoid of excessive decorations, consisting mostly of pure white pillars.
It possessed a minimalist beauty reminiscent of Greek architecture.
Inside the hall stood seven or eight white-robed priests.
Two were Dark Moon Priests, while the rest were Star Glow Priests.
Their combat power was incredibly formidable.
In the Myriad Ancient Pagoda at the Unreturning Place, most Priests were at the Fourth or 5th Tier. Those at the 6th Tier and Seventh Tier already belonged to the leadership class.
Before bringing Li Ban here, Priest Hunyou had notified the Mist Realm Priests in advance, so everyone present knew Li Ban's identity. However, Li Ban didn't recognize a single one of them.
Wait, no!
Li Ban's gaze landed on the face of a gloomy-looking Priest standing quietly behind the crowd.
It was actually Priest Hao Yang!
The Priest Hao Yang who had decisively lured away the monsters behind them so his younger brother could leave the Recycling Station; the brother to the Priest Hao Ze who had stood right in front of the spatial rift, yet chose to turn back and search for his older brother right before taking the final step.
A pang of emotion stirred within Li Ban's heart.
By now, Priest Hunyou had finished exchanging pleasantries with the two Dark Moon Priests and was introducing the people before them to Li Ban.
When the introductions reached Priest Hao Yang, Li Ban raised an eyebrow. "Priest Hao Yang looks very familiar. Do you happen to have a brother?"