The commotion behind him grew louder, the battle raging with extraordinary intensity. It seemed Ning Wuhui truly had the strength to fight the night owl head-on. Besides, the beast had already been wounded. Qin Sang no longer felt too worried.

He noticed the stone forest quietly changing. It became even gloomier and more terrifying, the yin wind carrying eerie, wailing sounds that deepened the sinister atmosphere. From afar came a faint rustling that was definitely not the wind.

"The ferocious beasts have been stirred up..." Qin Sang's gaze hardened. He dared not linger and darted swiftly through the forest, heading toward Dark Valley.

Even so, he encountered two groups of beasts along the way. Fortunately, none were top-tier threats. With the sword wheel, Qin Sang swiftly slew them. After a series of twists and turns, he finally escaped the stone forest.

"I wonder how Ning Wuhui is faring." He arrived at their meeting spot but did not see Ning Wuhui anywhere.

Thanks to the Sky Eyes, Qin Sang had avoided danger several times, suffering no injuries. He had merely exhausted some true essence, which could be restored with a brief meditation.

There was nothing else he could do but wait patiently. Beyond the stone forest stretched an endless wasteland of gravel and rock, barren and lifeless.

He leapt onto the crown of a stone tree and looked into the distance. On his left, faint mountain shadows stretched endlessly, their peaks shrouded in afterglow.

Within the afterglow were countless spatial rifts that were dense, tangled, and overlapping. The void there looked as if it had been torn apart, the sight utterly terrifying.

Compared to those spatial rifts, even the dazzling lights of ancient barriers paled into insignificance.

No wonder human cultivators had yet to uncover the true secrets of Seven-Kill Hall. In such a place, even a Spiritual Infant cultivator could barely take a step, and the depths were surely even more perilous.

Fortunately, the space within the deeper part of the wasteland seemed far more stable, with rifts scattered sparsely.

As Qin Sang was surveying the terrain, he suddenly sensed an approaching fluctuation. He turned his gaze and saw Ning Wuhui speeding toward him, safe and sound. His heart lifted with relief.

"Daoist Ning, are you injured?" Qin Sang descended and examined him. Ning Wuhui merely looked drained, his true essence clearly overdrawn, but there were no visible wounds.

"I'm fine. The night owl was injured and weakened. The terrain of the stone forest also made it easier to escape," Ning Wuhui replied calmly, sitting cross-legged and holding a spirit stone to recover.

"With your current strength, Daoist Ning, you're already comparable to a Spiritual Infant grandmaster, aren't you?" Qin Sang hesitated but couldn't resist asking.

Ning Wuhui shook his head. "At this point, there's nothing left to hide. My External Spiritual Infant can't compare to a true Spiritual Infant. It lacks the corresponding great supernatural abilities. If targeted by a powerful foe, I would be in grave danger. What's worse, other than the fusion of my primordial spirit, I gain no direct benefit from it. My Golden Core cannot metamorphose. Everything stems from the External Spiritual Infant itself. My own cultivation is insufficient, and controlling it consumes a great deal of energy. Every time I use it, the Spiritual Infant must leave my body."

Hearing this, Qin Sang's mind cleared, gradually understanding.

The External Spiritual Infant, after all, did not truly belong to one's self. It was more like a borrowed force. In certain ways, it even resembled the corpse core he had once cultivated.

It was said that a true Spiritual Infant possessed the ability to teleport, a life-saving supernatural ability. Judging from Ning Wuhui's words, the External Spiritual Infant lacked such power.

Even so, possessing the combat strength of a Spiritual Infant was enough to drive countless Core Formation cultivators mad with envy.

Sensing Qin Sang's thoughts, Ning Wuhui smiled faintly. "This secret technique was passed to me by a senior. Being able to succeed was pure luck. It required a mature Earthblood Ginseng and several other extremely rare conditions. Under current circumstances, it's nearly impossible to replicate."

"Earthblood Ginseng?" Qin Sang murmured thoughtfully.

He was no expert in alchemy, and his understanding of spiritual herbs was shallow. After thinking for a while, he couldn't recall ever hearing of such a thing.

The secret technique for the External Spiritual Infant had clearly come from Senior Qingzhu. That didn't surprise Qin Sang.

Senior Qingzhu had entrusted Ning Wuhui with an important mission; their connection was clearly close. With Qingzhu's level of cultivation, it wasn't strange for him to possess one or two top-tier secret techniques.

It seemed like Qingzhu's plans were far-reaching. He needed Ning Wuhui to have sufficient strength to carry them out. Forming a Spiritual Infant normally required immense effort and risk. But with the External Spiritual Infant, Ning Wuhui's strength could soar instantly.

"Earthblood Ginseng has long gone extinct in the present world. I found traces of it in the records of Heavenly Dao Sect, which confirmed that one still existed within the trial realm. This spiritual herb resembles a human infant. Once mature, it can move freely, using evasion techniques even greater than those of Spiritual Infant cultivators. It's elusive and protected by powerful spiritual qi. Even within the trial realm, I had to plan meticulously and exhaust every method just to barely capture it. I nearly suffered a grievous injury." Ning Wuhui sighed.

"Refining it into an External Spiritual Infant was no simple task either. The secret technique was originally meant for Spiritual Infant grandmasters. I couldn't have done it alone. It required a spiritual array and many precious materials..."

The strong always had shade to rest under. Qin Sang couldn't help but feel a tinge of envy. All those harsh requirements had surely been arranged for Ning Wuhui in advance by Senior Qingzhu. He himself lacked such a guiding hand and had to carve his own path step by step.

"I cannot pass this secret technique on without permission. I hope you'll understand," Ning Wuhui said.

Qin Sang nodded in acknowledgment. If he truly wanted it, he would have to speak to Senior Qingzhu personally and negotiate an exchange.

Still, after hearing the details, Qin Sang's interest had waned. The conditions were too harsh, impossible to meet at the Core Formation Realm.

Even after breaking through to the Spiritual Infant Realm, it would be difficult to locate and capture an Earthblood Ginseng after so much preparation.

By comparison, helping Bai ascend to the corpse king level was a far more practical option. It would grant him aid equivalent to a Spiritual Infant cultivator's strength, and at least until the Heavenly Corpse Talisman was undone, Bai would remain loyal to him.

While Ning Wuhui sat cross-legged with eyes closed, regaining his strength, Qin Sang stood guard nearby.

When Ning Wuhui's true essence had recovered nearly to its peak, he rose and gazed into the depths of the wasteland. "I didn't expect so many twists and turns. We need to move faster now."

The two set out once more. The terrain of the wasteland rose and fell, though there were no towering peaks, only low, uneven hills. With no place to hide, they had to stay alert and cautious.

As they advanced, a chill gradually seeped into the air. They noticed faint gray mist drifting through the void ahead. The mist was thin, barely affecting visibility. The landscape remained the same barren expanse of rock and sand, hardly different from the outer region.

They stopped and stared forward. The gray mist stretched endlessly, forming a vast sea of fog with no visible boundary. It seemed far broader in scope than Purple Mist End.

"That ahead is Dark Valley," Ning Wuhui said in a solemn tone.

"I didn't expect it to cover such a vast area! It doesn't look like a valley at all," Qin Sang exclaimed.

"The term 'valley' here doesn't refer to mountains but to the void," Ning Wuhui explained, raising a hand to point toward the horizon on their left, "Look there, what appears to be an impassable dead end. On the opposite side, the same scene repeats, like two sheer walls enclosing Dark Valley between them."