Hui dropped into the trees, falling beneath the canopy. The second he was out of sight, he circulated his phoenix qi. His entire body burst into flames, as death qi and dying flesh burned away, then cycled to life qi and healed. Renewed and reinvigorated, Hui tossed his hair and looked around. Enormous trunks stood all around him, strong enough to lift the heavens from where he stood beside them. Small, bushy undergrowth and gnarled vines twisted as they fought for the dappled light that reached this low. High above, thick leaves left everything beneath in a perpetual semi-twilight.

Hui took a deep breath, breathing in clear, wood-elemental-qi-scented air.

Right. Now, to find our children…

He drew out the small remaining piece of incense and lit it with a spark of phoenix fire. A gentle pale fog emanated from it, wrapping around Hui.

A strange sense of freedom surrounded Hui. Pressure lifted off his body. The world dislocated from him, and he stood slightly askew from it, watching it from a aloof perspective.

Is that what it feels like to be disconnected from karma?

This… it shouldn’t be possible. The very existence of this incense, especially at a pre-Immortal level, must be due to the breakdown of the Heavenly Dao. As the Underworld broke down and the Heavens disregarded the mortal world, naturally, it would become easier for mortal cultivators to interfere with karma. Although Bai Xue and Li Xiang have never left the Southern Sect conference, they’ve never seen a karmic technique like this before, either.

Especially Bai Xue, who has contacts outside of the Southern Sect Conference. If she hasn’t seen a karmic technique like this before… it doesn’t mean it didn’t exist. Certainly, there are heavens beyond heavens, experts beyond experts, techniques beyond techniques. It isn’t guaranteed to be new if Bai Xue has never seen it, but it does lean toward being new.

But I’m not here to figure out where this incense came from, or how the principles of the world allowed it to be made.

I’m here to find my children.

He closed his eyes, reaching out around him. As he reached, a new sensation tingled at the borders of his perception. Hui frowned and touched it, sending his qi into it. His sensations expanded the second he touched it. Instantly, he perceived the world for dozens of meters in all directions, even behind trees and out of his direct line of sight.

Hui’s eyes flew open. He grinned. This… could it be? Divine sense! I finally have divine sense!

Eh, divine sense didn’t unlock until seventh stage? Isn’t divine sense usually a first- or third-stage ability?

Hui paused, then shrugged. Oh well. This world is a little strange, in the end. First stage is basically pre-cultivation, not flying until fourth… it seems to be a bit on the low-fantasy side for a xianxia. And I’ve definitely read books where divine sense unlocks late! Sixth realm, seventh realm—they aren’t outside the range of reason. It is a pretty powerful sense, after all, being able to perceive without my eyes and outside my range of vision.

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Sitting cross-legged on the air, he expanded his divine sense out. Out, and out, and out. Overhead, he watched Bai Xue and the melting-hand-man fight. In the distance, Li Xiang dueled the other cultivator, trading sword qi and massive blasts of qi back and forth. Hui paused for a moment, taking in their attacks. If I sat here for a while, I could learn so much. Maybe I’d actually have an at-realm attack technique…

Focus. He pressed on. Past Li Xiang’s battle. Toward the mountains. A strange qi signature. A teleportation formation. Something. Anything.

Nothing. Barren ground. The natural swirl of qi.

Hui frowned. A teleportation formation should have a massive qi signature. Why can’t I…

Wait, hold on. If it’s a one-directional teleportation formation like the one I encountered on the far side of the barrier mountains, it could have absolutely no qi signature! All it needs is some thread and a few stakes in the right place… hmm…

Hui focused his attention on the ground, sending his divine sense sweeping low over the earth. When he compressed it, it stretched further, covering more ground than when he spread it evenly around him like a dome. His senses scurried through the grass like a mouse. Each blade of grass and snarled piece of undergrowth laid bare before him. The trunk of every tree appeared as a large void in his senses, though with a mere extra push, he sensed the internal parts of the tree, its dense wood and the rings of its age, the parts where it rotted and where it grew strong. A tiny chipmunk bounced by, a caterpillar crawled along, a wolf spider stalked its prey.

He pushed on. Further. Something unnatural. Something that doesn’t belong.

As his divine sense swept through the undergrowth, something stirred in the back of his mind. A feeling, a secondary sense to the divine sense. Hui paused, reaching out to that feeling.

Warmth. Comfort. Home. Hunger. Light.

Putting a hand to his chin thoughtfully, Hui squinted. Is this… or rather, are these what the forest and the creatures within it are feeling? It’s something like when my one clone… was it Wildman? Sectgoer?—could talk to trees due to the inheritance they’d received from the lotus clone technique, but… different. Rather than speaking to them, I’m merely observing from afar. Sensing the general emotions and sensations of the beings around me. It… almost does make me feel like a minor god. I wonder if that’s why it’s called divine sense?

Hmm, but if that’s the case… my job just got much easier.

Listening to the emotions of the creatures around him, Hui continued to sweep his sense through the forest. Abruptly, one thought lit up in his head.

New. Foreign. Out of place. Strange.

Hui focused on that thought and chased it down, focusing his divine sense into a ray. For a brief moment, he saw a spider, crawling along the forest floor. Then his divine sense ray landed on it, and the spider toppled over, stunned.

Confused, Hui stared for a moment, then belatedly spread his divine sense again. That’s right. I almost forgot. Divine sense can be used as a psychic stun attack. I didn’t mean to harm the spider, but even so, condensing my divine sense to such an extreme… well. I should have expected that. He carefully retracted his divine sense around the spider, then pushed on.

Stakes in the ground. Thin threads connecting one to another. A strange upwelling of qi from below.

Hui’s eyes flashed open. I’ve found it!

As he retracted his divine sense, another human mind brushed against his. Hui continued to retract, but his eyes narrowed. And it seems… so have those villains. I can’t let them get there first.

Leaping up from the ground, he flew forth at top speed, hurtling toward the teleportation formation, snubbing out the very last of the karmic incense as he went.