Several months passed in the blink of an eye, and the Ninghua Sect still had not found any formations within the search area.

However, there are occasional evil cultivators who try to harm Chen Sangruo.

As a result, of course, they became acquaintances after she used her fan.

Just as she had expected, these were simply scattered evil cultivators lurking in the cultivation world, and no information could be gleaned from them.

During this period, another formation was discovered in a place called Tianshuang Island within the cultivation world.

The Beast Taming Sect and a group of independent cultivators led the team to break the curse.

So far, four formations have been found in the cultivation world.

Almost half a year has passed since the formation of the Illusory Domain began to be broken, and Mei Mei and the others have not yet emerged from the barrier.

It is evident that the difficulty of the formations has increased dramatically, and those formations have become increasingly difficult to discover. The remaining formations are all hidden very deeply.

Another month later, news finally came that the formation in the Illusory Realm had been broken, after nearly six months of work.

But before Shen Sangri could even feel happy after receiving the news, she saw in the letter that Zhu Miao had fallen into a deep sleep.

That formation was even more dangerous than the two formations in Starry Plain and Crimson Desert combined.

Mei Mei and her group almost perished in the formation.

At the critical moment, it was Zhu Miao who blocked the attack of the formation for them, which allowed Mei Mei and the others to survive.

As a result, Zhu Miao fell into a deep sleep.

Even so, Mei Mei and the others were seriously injured. They used their last bit of strength to get out of the barrier, and then they fainted.

The attack seemed tailor-made for Zhu Miao.

Or to put it another way, this formation was designed with two purposes from the beginning: one was to extract spiritual energy, and the other was to harm the mountain god Zhu Miao.

Those evil cultivators knew that if the formation was discovered, Zhu Miao, as the mountain god of the Illusionary Domain, would participate in breaking the formation without hesitation, so they had already planned to use this opportunity to target Zhu Miao.

Shen Sanruo has been feeling inexplicably uneasy these past few days, as if something bad is about to happen.

The unease in my heart was confirmed the moment I received the message from the old wizard.

She had a spiritual connection with Xiaozhu Miao, and she had a vague feeling about it on the day it had an accident.

However, due to the barrier, she was unable to fully perceive what was happening.

Fortunately, the old wizard told her that Zhu Miao had only fallen into a deep sleep and had not suffered any other harm. She would recover after resting in the mountains and forests of the Illusionary Realm for some time.

Those evil cultivators weren't powerful enough to threaten the mountain god's life with a formation set up ten thousand years ago.

However, the old wizard could not yet determine the time required for this nurturing process.

It could be a few years, or it could be decades, or even a hundred years.

Even through the letter, Shen Sangruo could feel the old wizard's helplessness and heartache. The old wizard cared so much about Zhu Miao, so he must be feeling terrible.

The image of the little ball of fur clinging to her and whimpering flashed through her mind, and the thought of it lying there injured and asleep filled her with immense heartache.

I immediately took some time to visit the Misty Realm.

Even though she was prepared, she still clenched her fists tightly when she saw the little one curled up in a ball.

"Don't worry, it will wake up in a while," the old wizard comforted her with a smile, though the smile seemed somewhat forced.

The little guy seemed to sense her arrival, and its paws began to wave as if searching for something, but its eyes remained closed no matter what it did.

Shen Sanruo paused for a moment, then immediately put her arm into the little guy's arms. The little guy hugged her arm and calmed down.

She felt even more distressed, as if something was pressing down on her, making it hard to breathe.

"Is it because I have a connection with its spirit?" She pondered for a moment and then realized the reason.

"Yes!" the old wizard replied firmly, his voice filled with joy. "No matter what method I used to try to wake it up, even taking out its favorite bamboo, it didn't react at all."

Now that Zhu Miao has not only responded, but is also trying to open her eyes and wake up, how could he not be happy?

"Your connection with its spirit might help it wake up sooner," the old wizard said with deep emotion. "Now it seems that forming a pact with you back then was a good thing for it."

Otherwise, this crucial connection between the soul and spirit would not have been preserved.

"After Zhu Miao, I will need to ask you for help. It can sense your presence. If you use your divine soul power to call out to it, you may be able to awaken it."

With that, the old wizard bowed deeply to her.

Shen Sangruo quickly helped the old wizard up. "Zhu Miao was my first contracted beast. Although the contract had to be dissolved, it is still the same in my heart as before."

"There's no need for the old wizard to tell me; I will find a way to awaken it."

The old wizard nodded, almost moved to tears, just like a worried "old father".

However, awakening Zhu Miao is a long process, and the old wizard knew that Shen Sanruo had other things to do and was busy dealing with evil cultivators, so he did not let her start the awakening process immediately.

"Then you should go back first. Come back to the Illusionary Realm after the matter of the evil cultivator is settled. I will take good care of it in the meantime."

"Mmm," she replied.

He used his divine soul power to soothe Zhu Miao's condition, patted the little guy's head as before, and then turned to leave.

After sensing her departure, the little guy frowned again and curled himself up into a ball once more.

She kept this debt in mind.

Shen Sangruo's gaze was filled with a sharp light as she looked ahead.

Shortly after returning to the Ninghua Sect's search area, she received a message from the Wanling Palace.

The Wanling Palace discovered a formation.

It was located precisely on the site where the Hall of All Souls was built.

This formation was hidden very well, and even Gu Ci Zhenjun and the others were shocked when they found it.

Because they had already investigated the Hall of All Souls once before, and were among the first to begin the investigation.

Recently, the entire cultivation world has reached a bottleneck in the search for formations, and almost every place that should be searched has been searched.

That meant the previous search hadn't been thorough enough, so they started a second, more thorough search.

Sure enough, the search revealed a formation at the address of the Hall of Ten Thousand Spirits.

The formation completely covered the entire Wanling Palace.

The Hall of Ten Thousand Spirits had survived for thousands of years within the array set up by such an evil cultivator, without anyone noticing.

It's enough to send chills down your spine.

The message from the Hall of Ten Thousand Spirits was intended to send Shen Sangruo and the others to the Hall of Ten Thousand Spirits to break the formation.

The Heavenly Sword Sect, the Alchemy Sect, and the Weapon Refining Sect were severely injured by the formation of the Illusory Domain.

The team composed of the Beast Taming Sect and independent cultivators from Tianshuang Island was unable to cope, and the Chimo Jiang family had already gone to provide support.

The Flying Cloud Sect was forbidden from participating in breaking the formation.

The members of Ninghua Sect have recovered from their injuries, making them the best candidates to break the formation of the Myriad Spirits Palace.

Second update! Thank you all for your support! *tweets*

(End of this chapter)