Because Cat Girl carried the Chaotic Green Silk Algae, she was highly sensitive to other Mutated Elements. Since the Mutated Elements in the Nihility State were almost entirely Xiao Suo's handiwork, they made her the core of their operation to find where he was hiding.
But in reality, Cat Girl was nothing more than Li Ban's decoy.
Even if she found the Mutated Elements, using them to track down Xiao Suo wasn't impossible, but it would certainly take a long time.
The one truly responsible for tracking him was Li Ban, hidden in the shadows.
By the time Cat Girl's group entered the Nihility State, Li Ban had already been deep inside for a day.
At his current location, there was simply no way to fly using spiritual rhinoceros.
If the spiritual rhinoceros in the last place he visited had been stagnant as mud, here it was like solid stone—almost impossible to mobilize.
Li Ban could only use his own spiritual rhinoceros.
Although he had an abundance of it, he needed to save his reserves for the coming battle with Xiao Suo. Instead of flying, he walked the ground like an ordinary person.
'In my cultivation so far, I've actually encountered many places where I couldn't use spiritual rhinoceros.'
The Trash Realm, the Recycling Station, and even most of the small worlds he had visited lacked abundant spiritual rhinoceros.
'The Wizard World really is an artificial world. Only a deliberately designed place could accumulate so much spiritual rhinoceros.'
Loaded into the old man's body, Li Ban grabbed a random wooden stick from the ground and walked into the mist.
He advanced step by step, searching for Xiao Suo's aura while lost in thought.
'External matter falls from the Nine Heavens Sea, pouring in massive amounts of spiritual rhinoceros. The impurities are sifted out—some thrown into the Trash Realm, some into the Shattered Realm, and others dropped right into the Dark Side of the World.'
'The Nine Heavens Sea is divided into the River of Helplessness and the River of Forgetfulness. The River of Helplessness carries raw souls toward the Unreturning Place, and the River of Forgetfulness carries undecaying corpses into the Dust Well.'
'What ultimately remains in the Wizard World, aside from massive quantities of elements, is the spiritual rhinoceros that allows people to cultivate.'
'But where do the things in the Nine Heavens Sea come from?'
Energy couldn't be consumed without being replenished.
Especially when massive amounts were being siphoned off by the Unreturning Place and the Dust Well.
Li Ban now guessed that the Nine Heavens Sea likely took in a vast number of shattered small worlds.
The Great Wizards captured many small worlds from the outside. Once they shattered, they became new nourishment for the Wizard World.
Ordinary people raised pigs for meat; Great Wizards raised small worlds for wizard embryos.
To throw such a massive system into the Recycling Station and replicate an entirely new one—
Just how much terrifying power would that require?
Walking through the Nihility State, Li Ban felt the sheer might of the Wizard World's creator more strongly than ever.
The mere thought of stopping someone like that from rebooting the world was enough to inspire despair.
Li Ban took a deep breath. 'To stop the cycle, I don't necessarily need to kill that Great Wizard. Just look at Xiao Suo—he wants to destroy the Wizard World, but he started small, with Mutated Elements.'
By seizing the enemy's flaws, there was still a chance of defeating the strong with the weak.
What Li Ban needed to do now was advance as quickly as possible, putting himself on the same level as the Great Wizards.
As he walked, a black silhouette suddenly flashed by in the distance.
Because the fog was so dense, "the distance" was actually only twenty meters away.
'To think I'd run into someone in a place like this. Well, it might not be a person.'
Li Ban immediately gave chase.
But the black silhouette vanished into the fog in a flash. Li Ban chased it for over a hundred meters without catching sight of it again.
The terrain began to slope upward; in some places, the incline exceeded fifty degrees.
Fortunately, Li Ban was agile and scaled the slopes without the slightest effort.
'Yun Province was originally located in the northwest corner of Yingzhou and Lan Province. It might have been a plateau.'
Unfortunately, the mist kept him from seeing the full landscape.
Just as he was about to give up, another black silhouette flashed past the corner of his eye.
'Is it deliberately luring me?'
After a moment's thought, Li Ban ran toward where it had appeared.
Just like before, he lost track of it.
Yet just as his search proved fruitless, the silhouette reappeared.
'Is it leading me somewhere?'
Realizing this, Li Ban was no longer in a hurry. He followed its guidance, trekking steadily toward the northwest.
The terrain grew higher and higher.
Along the way, he scaled a massive mountain over a thousand meters tall.
No living creatures existed here; the mountain path was nothing but rock and soil.
There was no plant life, and the rocks crumbled at the slightest touch.
Partway up, completely out of footholds, Li Ban had no choice but to fly for a short stretch.
Once it discovered Li Ban could fly, the silhouette took to the air as well to guide him.
After traveling for several days and nights, the black silhouette finally came to a halt.
It paused just ten meters away, standing quietly as if gazing right at him.
"You lured me all the way here. Are you going to speak to me now?"
The silhouette remained silent.
Li Ban approached, finally getting a clear look at it.
The silhouette was actually a black robe. The hood was massive, completely shrouding the wearer's face, making Li Ban wonder how they could see at all.
He took another step closer.
The black robe didn't flee; its hem merely swayed.
'Hmm? Is there a breeze here?'
Li Ban glanced toward the source of the breeze and faintly made out a cave.
He ignored the cave for the moment and walked right up to the black robe.
Up close, Li Ban's eyes widened slightly.
The black robe—it was literally just an empty black robe.
It was draped over an ash-white, petrified tree branch.
From a distance, it had looked like someone standing there, but up close, there was absolutely nothing underneath.
If the windless depths of the Nihility State hadn't left its shape perfectly undisturbed, Li Ban would have realized it was just an empty garment much sooner.
He reached out and pinched the sleeve.
He squeezed it tight, then let it go.
There was nothing inside but air.
The moment he let go, the robe flew up.
As if possessing a mind of its own, it lifted off the branch and settled over Li Ban.
Even the hood dropped perfectly over his head.
It wasn't a perfect fit. It was a little too small, its shoulder seams barely covering Li Ban's arms.
Its original owner must have been somewhat slimmer and shorter than him.
Li Ban sensed no malice from the robe, nor any intent to attack.
Curious about why it had lured him here just to dress him in itself, he didn't interrupt its actions.
Li Ban raised a hand to pull the hood down, but the moment he pushed it back, it automatically snapped back over his head.
He pinched the brim. "Are you trying to make me impersonate someone?"
He glanced up at the nearby cave. "Do you want me to wear you inside?"
A piece of clothing naturally couldn't answer him.
However, Li Ban kept it on and walked into the cave.
"Crack."
Just inside the cave, Li Ban stepped on a piece of weathered rock, shattering it.
The mist in here was much thinner.
He took two more steps forward and suddenly heard a voice.
"Sister, have you returned?"