"Inside the Earth Abyss Mother, there is a power to control mental consciousness. You all felt the crying and whispers just now, right?"

"I felt it." Zhou Xuan nodded.

"..." Painter.

With a pained expression, the Painter said, "Is my cultivation level too weak, causing me to hear nothing?"

This Bone Elder Association Divine Office, already near the peak of human cultivation with eight incense sticks, now doubted his own level of cultivation,

"Perhaps my eight incense sticks are just fake." The Painter said, feeling very frustrated.

"Let me think..." Miss Qiang began calculating in the Secret Realm’s Black Water, endless symbols emerging on the water’s surface.

When faced with uncertainty, calculate wildly,

Miss Qiang quickly arrived at a conclusion, saying joyfully, "I understand now. Had it not been for entering this Earth Abyss, I’d never have thought to compute the questions the Painter posed. Now, many doubts can be easily resolved."

"How so?"

Zhou Xuan asked.

The consciousness of Miss Qiang formed into a tiny figure on Zhou Xuan’s arm, sitting on the edge of his palm, she said, "The Perception of the Jing Country is strong, but their mental sensitivity is the weakest, precisely because of this weakness, the Earth Abyss’s spiritual control doesn’t affect many Jing Country people."

"Whispers and cries all come from the Earth Abyss’s spiritual control, but your mental sensitivity is so weak it’s nearly nonexistent, so the spiritual control can’t control you."

Zhou Xuan, Painter: "..."

Is this the so-called "fools beat masters"?

The Painter then asked, "But the Grandmaster is also a Jing Country person, why could he hear it?"

"Blood Well Spirits are a group with extremely strong Perception and spiritual power, within your Jing Country, they are considered... um... how to say... oh right... abnormal."

"..." Zhou Xuan.

Zhou Xuan: "Miss Qiang, why do you speak as roughly as Ya Zi?"

Miss Qiang continued, "Within the Jing Country, the storyteller’s Tangkou is actually simulating spiritual control in the form of Perception, this belongs to a form of spiritual control,

Jing Country people have insufficient mental sensitivity, and usually, they don’t think about how to counteract spiritual control, so once controlled by a storyteller, it’s hard to have a countermeasure; ultimately, it’s still lack of experience."

"According to my predictions—the nemesis of the storyteller’s Tangkou, is not in the Jing Country, but in our Blood Flesh Divine Dynasty, we have many ways to counteract types of spiritual control, for example..."

Zhou Xuan: "No more examples, Miss Qiang, don’t worry about the storytellers."

Goodness, if Miss Qiang really reveals this method, and if there are eavesdroppers, the storyteller’s Tangkou could decline on the spot.

"Then forget it."

Miss Qiang obediently stopped speaking.

The Painter asked again, "So does that mean, back then, Liu Pingyao could also have been a Blood Well Spirit?"

"Being able to sense the whispers of the Earth Abyss Mother Body from a great distance indicates his mental sensitivity is very strong, so he should be a Blood Well Spirit." Miss Qiang said.

The Painter then had another question: "But that doesn’t make sense, according to the Bone Elder Association’s Earth Abyss plan records, Liu Pingyao heard the whispers at seven thousand meters, while the Grandmaster heard them at eight thousand meters. Does that mean—Liu Pingyao’s Perception and spiritual power are even above the Grandmaster’s?

Perception and spiritual power so strong, how could it hide the identity of a ’Blood Well Spirit’ within the Bone Elder Association?"

Miss Qiang immediately put her hands on her hips and sighed, "Painter, you lack wisdom. Now listen to what I’m going to say."

With that, Miss Qiang began to speak, but only moved her lips without sound, the Painter shook his head vigorously like a rattle and said, "I can’t hear you."

"That’s just it."

Miss Qiang’s little figure jumped onto the Painter’s shoulder, grabbed the Painter’s ears with both hands, and scolded fiercely, "The Earth Abyss Mother’s voice isn’t just normally loud, sometimes she whispers, sometimes she shouts, how can you just rely on the whispering distance to judge whose Perception is stronger between Liu Pingyao and Ah Xuan?"

"I get it, I get it, stop yelling, my ears are going to be deaf."

The Painter repeatedly pleaded for mercy.

Zhou Xuan then said, "So, Miss Qiang, should we continue deeper into the Earth Abyss?"

"Let’s keep going and see."

Miss Qiang said, "The Earth Abyss has a Mother, it also has a Mother Palace, deep within the Mother Palace, an unknown fetus is gestating. Right now, we are still far from that fetus. Let’s get closer and sense it. With me here, rest assured you’ll be safe."

Miss Qiang, like her algorithm, can be said to be like a robot, always calculating before facing any difficult situation,

but simultaneously, there’s an advantage, that is, Miss Qiang never takes risks. If she says it’s safe, then it must be safe.

Zhou Xuan and the Painter proceeded once more into the Earth Abyss.

Because their Perception could no longer function, they had to rely on the Painter to reveal a Tao Flame regularly to light the way ahead.

As Zhou Xuan walked, he questioned Miss Qiang, "Do you think the Earth Abyss Mother will be very strong?"

"Certainly."

Miss Qiang said, "The mental sensitivity of Jing Country people is very weak, but back in the day, those mental fools—the twelve hill-moving warriors—were still controlled by the Mother’s spiritual power at ten thousand meters."

"Didn’t you say people like us wouldn’t be controlled?" the Painter asked.

"Generally, it is very difficult to control you, but if the Mother’s spiritual control power is strong enough, she can still control you. You merely have poor mental sensitivity, but it’s not absent."

At this point, Miss Qiang continued, "Perhaps, the Mother’s spiritual control power is not inferior to the main brain of our Blood Flesh Divine Dynasty."

"Is it that strong?"

As Zhou Xuan questioned, he already passed the "nine thousand meters" marker.

Nine nails on the wall appeared like a terrifying sign with the words: Forbidden Land Ahead, Do Not Enter.

But Zhou Xuan still unhesitatingly stepped past the "nine thousand meters" boundary.

"The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao, the name that can be named is not the eternal name... Taoist Ancestor Scripture, who can comprehend its profound meaning?"

"The descent of incense origins, incense is the beginning of heaven and earth."

"In the mystery of the Three Pure Ones, nothing is more important than uniting forces; in the mystery of heaven and earth, nothing is more significant than understanding change."

"The method of uniting forces is known to everyone, yet mastery is rare; the divine power of understanding change, few people understand."

Wave after wave of whispers entered Zhou Xuan’s ears,

Unlike the terror of "Strangers beware, baby cries",

these whispers were more like an old scholar in a private school lecturing, with the first lesson throwing out all ultimate propositions to arouse the curiosity of students.

After hearing these whispers, suddenly—a spark passed through the Secret Realm.

That spark, like a fleeting glance, vanished swiftly, but Zhou Xuan clearly perceived it as the opportunity for the "Fifth Incense Stick".

He had passed the Tao Ancestor’s inquiry, comprehended the "Heaven Style", and mastered the Valley True Inheritance, passing the promotion ceremony of four incense sticks, but the opportunity for the Fifth Incense Stick did not arrive until recent days.

However, he never expected to encounter the opportunity for the Fifth Incense Stick at nine thousand meters in the Earth Abyss.

"For the Fifth Incense Stick, which Tangkou will I walk?"

Zhou Xuan asked himself.

As he was lost in thought, the Painter, as if witnessing a great horror, turned his face to Miss Qiang and said, "Miss Qiang, this time... I heard the whispers too."

"You can hear?" Miss Qiang asked urgently.

"In the mystery of the Three Pure Ones, nothing is more important than uniting forces; in the mystery of heaven and earth, nothing is more significant than understanding change."

The Painter repeated the whispers content he heard,

Miss Qiang was instantly alarmed, and quickly shouted, "Ah Xuan, retreat! The Earth Abyss Mother is controlling us, it... may be even more powerful than the main brain of the Blood Flesh Divine Dynasty."