Chapter 866 All the People Were Gone?
However, many people did not retreat in the face of danger because they had their own plans. Once the River Palace and Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect were both seriously injured, they might be able to reap the benefits. After all, legend had it that there were countless natural treasures on Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Mountain.
“The defense formation of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect broke down.”
Many people found some clue.
The River Palace did not continue to attack. The first attack was just to break the defense formation of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect. After all, they also wanted the treasures on the mountain. If the cannons kept bombing and turned the whole mountain gate into ruins, all the treasures would be turned into dregs. It would be a waste.
After the defense formation broke down, the white mist covering the gate of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect began to dissipate.
This white mist was one of the formations to block one’s sight.
In the sky, w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g sneered “Huh huh, it can’t withstand a single blow.” After all, it was just a small sect, which was really weak. Sending out River Wars.h.i.+ps to deal with such a sect was like breaking a b.u.t.terfly on the wheel. “It seemed that I had overestimated the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect.” w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g thought.
He looked down.
All of a sudden, his smile froze.
At the same time, those masters of all the forces and sects around also opened their eyes wide.
The scene in front of them was completely different from what they imagined.
They had thought that they would see those furious or frightened disciples of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect; they would see this rising sect fighting against the River Palace with all their efforts; they would see desperate senior officials of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect...
But none of these happened.
When the white mist completely dissipated, the mountain gate of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect was revealed. Under the sun, the pavilions, stone steps, and shrines were tranquil and peaceful. The mountain gate enjoyed a very good layout and it was magnificent among many medium-sized sects. It could be seen that the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect had really been working hard over the years.
The white towers of the library pierced into the void like sharp swords.
But the only thing that was not harmonious was that the whole mountain gate was empty.
Tens of thousands of disciples of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect seemed to have completely disappeared into the air.
There were only empty streets, empty stone halls, empty medicine gardens and empty martial arts practice grounds...
Even all kinds of livestock and animals disappeared, and not even a feather of the chicken was left. Under the suns.h.i.+ne, plenty of plants in these spiritual herb gardens were also uprooted and even the soil in the herb garden was sc.r.a.ped off by three feet...
It looked like the whole Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect had been robbed, without anything valuable left.
“Did they escape?”
w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g didn’t regain his composure yet.
How was this possible?
Before sending troops, the hidden sentries of the River Palace had been secretly monitoring the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect around its mountain gate. They would never let any martial artists of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect leave the mountain gate. It could be said that its mountain gate had been completely blocked. Except for Ding Hao and a few other super powerful masters, ordinary disciples could not leave at all.
In fact, in the past few days of inspection, the River Palace had already confirmed that no one in the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect had left.
But now, why were there no people on the mountain gate?
“Where do so many people including those ordinary people without martial arts skills go?”
It was too weird.
“Descend!”
As w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g gave the order, the River Wars.h.i.+ps landed at the mountain gate of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect.
The forces standing around and watching the fighting also began to approach slowly, trying to figure out what was going on.
The current situation was very clear. The people of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect had indeed fled, and they had fled completely with all kinds of valuable things in the sect moved away. However, the problem was how they escaped.
The migration of tens of thousands of people wasn’t something that could be completed overnight.
It was horrible that tens of thousands of people disappeared without a trace under the gazes of almost the entire Northern Region. Even masters at the Supreme Realm could not take so many people away in just a few days.
Where were the people of Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect?
No one had expected to see such a scene today.
“Search! I don’t believe they can disappear into thin air,” w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g ordered loudly with a bad feeling that everything was out of control.
The experts of Qing River Palace jumped off the wars.h.i.+ps and began to search frantically.
Ten minutes later.
“Reporting to the Hall Leader, we’ve searched the entire mountain gate but didn’t find any trace of them. They all left. The legendary Divine Herb Garden has been emptied, and the divine wells have been filled up. Therefore, the whole Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect has been emptied, and even...” At this point, the expert who reported held back the impulse to laugh and said, “They even took away all the bowls and chopsticks.”
“How about the mysterious crystals in the Great Abyss of the Back Mountain?” w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g said coldly.
“The crystal vein is still there, but...”
“But what?”
“However, a lot of the crystals have been excavated, about a tenth of all crystals”
Hearing such a report, w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g who was tense at first was relieved a little bit now. If even the mysterious crystal vine was taken away, then the action of the River Palace this time would become useless and even become a laughing stock.
“Find out where the people of Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect went.” w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g did not believe that tens of thousands of people could all disappear in a breath. They must have hidden somewhere. However, they were too naive to believe that hiding in some place would help.
“My Lord, we found an inscription pattern similar to the transmission formation in the Square of Military Affairs. Maybe they escaped here through the transmission formation...” Another master of the Qing River Palace found some clues.
“Let’s go and have a look.”
w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g came to the Square of Military Affairs.
In an instant, there was a very strange remnant aura of a s.p.a.ce formation.
On the vast square, there were lines that were half a meter deep and as wide as a ca.n.a.l. They filled almost the entire square. The lines, extremely complicated, looked as if they had been burned by raging flames and left some bluish-gray powder.
“It’s the powder of the mysterious crystal that has been completely burned.” w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g carefully observed it and came to a conclusion.
At the same time-
Swis.h.!.+
Dozens of figures rushed across the vast sky and landed on the square.
“Who is it?” The experts of the River Palace became alert.
w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g’s eyes narrowed instead while a trace of a cold smile appeared on the corners of his mouth. He said, “So you are from the Blue Cloud Sect, the Extermination Swordsmans.h.i.+p Sect, and Heaven Sect. May I know why you come in unexpected?”
The people who showed up were the experts of the other ten top forces in the Northern Region.
“Huh huh, Mr. w.a.n.g, the mountain gate of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect doesn’t belong to your River Palace. Why can’t we come?” A master reaching the Martial Sage realm from the Blue Cloud Sect retorted.
w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g sneered and said nothing.
There were rumors that the Blue Cloud Sect and the Extermination Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect were both supporters of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect. Therefore, the River Palace was worried that they would be obstructed by the Blue Cloud Sect and the Extermination Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect during their punitive expedition to the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect. Who knew that the two sects would not do anything at all? It seemed that the two sects were also coveting the treasures of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect.
None of them was good.
“My lord, people from other sects have broken into the mountain.” An expert of the River Palace came to report in a hurry. At this time, people from other sects, big and small, who had been watching around also broke into the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect in order to figure out what was going on.
“Humph! Do these ignorant fools want to share a piece of the pie?” w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g’s face revealed a chilling killing intent.
Martial Sage “Huh huh, isn’t it better for everyone to see the mighty of your River Palace?” The master in the Martial Sage from the Blue Cloud Sect laughed loudly. “This isn’t your territory. Let everyone in.”
w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g didn’t say anything, just gently waving his hand.
In the end, he didn’t give the order to stop them.
Back then, Ding Hao had won the hearts of countless martial artists by teaching martial arts around the world. He won the prestige and support of all sides. This was also one of the reasons why the major sects had always coveted the herb garden and crystals of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect but did not dare to rob them openly.
In order not to provoke a public outcry, the River Palace finally found a reasonable excuse like Luo Tong’s death to make difficulties for the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect.
Although the River Palace didn’t care about those big or small sects, it would be extremely dangerous to arouse public anger.
It was better to let people from all over the world in right now.
They would know that the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect had fled to escape punishment. The River Palace did not start a ma.s.sacre. As long as they acted properly, it might be good for them.
It didn’t take long for the square to be crowded with people.
Everyone stared at the complicated gray inscriptions in a daze. Many inscriptionists in the crowd also looked at them with bright eyes, trying to figure out the function of the formation. After all, the whole Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect had disappeared mysteriously. Now it seemed that this formation was the only clue.
“No, this is an inscription formation from ancient times, not a product of modern times...” Someone exclaimed. He recognized the inscription methods whose way of moving patterns had been lost for countless years.
“Clearly, it was a transmission formation. It seems that the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect used it to leave.”
“But where did they go? Where does this formation lead to?”
“What a magical inscription pattern. In theory, the ancient formation could no longer work in this era. After all, the power tide between heaven and earth has degenerated and the Great Tao is incomplete. But why does this formation produce such a rich aura of spatial power...”
“The Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect is really pitiful. It was not easy for them to have the prospect of rising, but they were forced to abandon the mountain gate and escape in a hurry... Maybe this is the tragedy of a small sect.”
“Can we try to activate the formation again? Maybe we can figure out where the people of Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect have gone.”
The crowd discussed heatedly.
w.a.n.g Xiaow.a.n.g got a new idea.
Indeed, if the formation could be activated again, they might be able to track down the whereabouts of the people of the Swordsmans.h.i.+p-seeking Sect, and it was also strange that a formation in ancient times could be activated in the current world. Maybe they could get a more incredible opportunity if they continued to search this matter.