Not long after, the others returned from examining the concealment formations and they all found the same result. The formations were annihilated and the disciples in charge had disappeared.
With this, all those present felt that there was something greatly amiss and they fell silent.
The scholar bitterly laughed and said, “There are no other cultivators within fifty kilometers. And it is too timely an occurrence for someone to break our concealment while we are dissolving the seal. It seems this is the doing of one of us.”
“One of us?”
“How is that possible? There are only Ye Clan members here. What is going on?”
“No, there is someone that doesn’t truly belong to our clan!”
After some discussion, it was obvious who came to mind.
A majority of the cultivators all turned to look at a single person.
He had a common appearance and a calm face; he was the disguised Elder Devil.
The Ye Clan Grand Elder said, “Elder Han is someone that I personally invited, and he has always remained at Seventh Uncle’s side.”
“That’s right!” The large-headed eccentric said, “Fellow Daoist Han has always stayed close.”
When the other cultivators heard this, their suspicions were dispelled.
Then, the scholar turned to the square-faced cultivator and said, “Second Brother, can you check the bottom of the lake and see if there is anyone missing apart from the disciples that have disappeared.”
“Yes,” the square-faced man readily agreed. Afterwards, he flew deep underwater in a radiant streak.
The scholar solemnly said, “Clan Elders, let’s all make our preparations. Although an astonis.h.i.+ng change had occurred and we can no longer conceal this matter, there will be no threats to us during this short time. Nanjiang has no extremely powerful sects and it will require at least half a month for those who could contend with us to arrive. We may not know what lies in Kunwu Mountain, but we will need to excavate its hidden treasures as soon as possible. The two Divine Spirit Treasures in particular must be acquired first, or we will not have the power to defend ourselves against the coming storm. Those parasites have been plotting against us for thousands of years, and will exterminate our clan given the opportunity. Failure is not an option.”
The others felt their hearts tremble at his words and replied in sync, “As you command, Grand Elder!”
...
Soon, the square-faced cultivator, the Grand Elder, and the old formation grandmaster were gathered above the lake.
“Third Brother, there are two spell formation masters missing: the nephews of Old Fifth and Twelfth. Could it be they betrayed us?” The square-faced cultivator sullenly spoke.
The scholar snorted, “It is more likely they were killed and had their souls scoured. When did they go missing?”
With a face lined in cold sweat, the white-haired old man answered, “About two days ago, Grand Elder. They were in charge of the spell formations farthest away, so their disappearance hadn’t raised any suspicions. We only discovered they were missing after the disciples had gathered.”
The scholar coldly replied, “It seems the problem stemmed from those two. But what happened to them is no longer important. When we enter Kunwu Mountain, we will have all our disciples and spell formation masters depart. Have we verified the location of the seal’s opening?”
“Yes, it is ten kilometers north and three kilometers deep. The opening itself should be a hundred meters wide.”
“Lead the way, we set off now,” The scholar spoke without hesitation.
“Yes, Grand Elder!” The white-haired old man bowed.
The party of nine was led north and soon arrived above a verdant jungle.
The white-haired old man swept his gaze down below before summoning a silver plate with a flip of his hand.
After muttering an incantation, the old man struck it with a spell seal, causing its surface to glow with argent light and talisman characters.
“It’s here!” The old man looked at the spell plate for a moment before confirming its location.
“Good!” The scholar then turned to the old Daoist Nun and said, “Ninth Sister, release your spirit beast. We’re descending.”
The nun uttered a brief acknowledgment and a slapped a spirit beast pouch by her waist. A yellow light shot out from it and expanded to reveal a thirty-meter-long, thousand-legged centipede. Green Qi leaked from its mouth in a rather sinister fas.h.i.+on.
Apart from the white-clothed old man, all the Ye Clan cultivators flew onto the centipede’s back.
The nun shouted out a command and a layer of yellow light surrounded the centipede’s body, covering all of the cultivators that sat on it. Then, it dug straight down, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
The old man floated above around for a moment. After seeing no sign that the Ye Clan cultivators would return, he let out a long sigh and flew back.
...
Meanwhile in the sky a hundred kilometers away, there were several blue-robed cultivators wearing red headbands. They were looking at the pillars of light in the distance and exchanged looks of dismay.
A twenty-year-old youth amongst them asked, “What could possible cause such an astonis.h.i.+ng scene!”
The tan middle-aged cultivator in charge spoke with a grim expression, “It certainly isn’t ordinary. Junior Martial Brother Yu, quickly report back to the sect. I will bring the rest of the disciples to take a look.”
When he heard this, he flew off on his magic tool.
The others then travelled towards the light.
...
In place further away, there were over a hundred variously-dressed cultivators gathered together on a tall mountain. They all possessed lesser cultivation, with a majority of them at Qi Condensation stage.
Although their cultivation was low, they clearly saw the pillars of light in the distance. They all stood up and gazed in the direction of the light.
...
Underneath a desolate mountain, there stood a plump old man at a half-open stone gate. He was looking at the pillars of light in the distance with a pensive expression.
...
The exposed pillars continued to attract flocks of cultivators from all backgrounds as time pa.s.sed.
Not long after, information of a grand treasure appearing in the world spread across Nanjiang at a shocking speed.
Several days later, this news spread to the nearby regions, stirring the entirety of Nanjiang with activity.
As this all happened, Han Li found himself standing at the center of a huge teleportation formation within a giant stalact.i.te cave.
He was gloomily looking beneath him, catching sight of the shattered rings that glowed with sparkling red light.
They were the magic tools that were restraining the Silver-winged Nightfiend.
With those rings shattered, he had no idea where the nightfiend could’ve gone.
With that thought, he took a gander at his waist.
There was a jade talisman that glowed luminescent.
It had familiar markings. They belonged to a rarely seen teleportation talisman, one he last saw them in the Scattered Star Seas.
He frowned and flipped his hand to produce a glowing blue medallion: the Greater Teleportation Medallion he acquired long ago.
Fearing that he could be completely torn apart from the spatial pressure, he had summoned the medallion into his hand before the teleportation had finished.
Of course, he couldn"t have expected that just as the formation’s light was about to absorb him, a similar talisman would suddenly appear at his waist.
It was unknown if there was something odd about the formation itself, or if the creators had made peculiar arrangements.
Regardless, this formation was quite different from current designs and was worth researching.
As Han Li thought this, he reached for the talisman at his waist, but before he could even touch it, it shattered into specks of light.
Han Li bitterly smiled after a brief moment of surprise.
It was quite painstaking to refine a teleportation talisman, and it would only have enough spiritual power for a single use. It appears this applied to other teleportation talismans as well.
As for the others, he looked nearby to find the Weeping Soul Beast and the two suspended grey coc.o.o.ns, also attached with now-shattered jade talismans.
As for the Corpse Wolf, it was dead, and the ten-meter-tall Weeping Soul Beast was jumping on top of it and pounding its chest with excitement.
Because of Han Li’s immense spiritual sense, he was able to quickly recover from the dizziness of the teleportation and used the opportunity to lethally injure it with a bolt of Divine Devilbane Lightning.
Then, the Weeping Soul Beast followed up with a snort of yellow mist, absorbing all of the Corpse Qi from the wolf’s body and easily finished it off.
The Silver-winged Nightfiend, however, didn’t seem to care, neither did he had any intention of continuing the fight.
He had finally gained his freedom, and decided to immediately use this opportunity to depart with the wind.