Regarding the Vermillion Empire, this empire did not have an inch of their territory connected to the border of the Ba Shu Country. It was located on the northeast side of the Great Luo. And the Ba Shu Country was located on the southwest. These two were in completely different places. Perhaps, the Vermillion Empire could send elite spies, but they would never send a large force to camp in the Green Jade Mountain. It was impossible for a few thousand soldiers to cross the vast region of the Great Luo undetected.
Additionally, the fight for the Green Jade Mountain was between the Great Luo and the Heavenly Lake Empire and had no relation to the Vermillion Empire. There weren’t any possibilities for the Vermillion to take over the Green Jade Mountain because of the long distance.
Qin Wushuang was curious, what were the Heavenly Lake Empire scheming?
Why did they murder those innocent civilians from the Purple Cloud Town? If they only did it as a show of their power, it did not make sense.
Qin Wushuang decided to take the risk and conduct a thorough investigation. Regardless, he must uncover the secret.
Qin Wushuang used his concealing technique to evade those sentries. After about fifteen minutes, indeed, he saw a cave behind the lush forest. That cave showed an open entrance and by looking from afar, Qin Wushuang knew that it was impossible to conceal himself and sneak into the cave.
Unless he knew technique to go invisible .
Now, he was somewhat envious of that man in grey robes. Inwardly, he thought if he only he could learn his technique of digging through the underground, it would be easy for him to approach that cave.
He hid in the corner and observed a while. Then, Qin Wushuang decided to take a risk. He subsequently took the clothes off that guard he had killed and put it on. After some checking himself and ensuring there were no flaws in his disguise, he walked out from the dark corner. Next, he ran towards that cave.
When he approached the cave, indeed, a large group of guards at the entrance stopped him.
"Which team are you from? Why did you come here on your own?"
"I am the outer perimeter sentry, I have important information to report."
"What information?" A captain like leader walked up and interrogated.
"The perimeter information shows that a large group of elite warriors from the Great Luo has arrived at the Purple Cloud Town. And there are other important information in which I must tell them myself." Qin Wushuang was also being careful. He also didn’t know who were the leaders.
Fortunately, that captain did not appear suspicious as he said: "Wait here, I am going to report."
After a while, that captain walked out and shouted: "Follow me, don’t go anywhere by yourself."
Feeling overjoyed inwardly, Qin Wushuang followed him. Currently, he felt akin to someone entering a dangerous tiger’s den.
After entering the cave, Qin Wushuang found this cave’s interior to be complicated and had many turns. After pa.s.sing a few narrow roads, suddenly, the s.p.a.ce opened up before him.
The inside of this cave appeared to be a completely different world.
A giant natural pit appeared in his sights. The inside of the natural pit only had dense fog and shackles. And man-made fences surrounded the pit as large groups of people gathered around it. One of the groups were apparently the leaders as they stood on the highest platform besides the fence and were engaged in discussion.
"Go!"
Qin Wushuang could tell from one look that each of those people were Upper Sky warriors. Among them, there were few Middle Stage elite warriors!
Qin Wushuang drew a breath of cold air. Indeed, such strength and formation had left him shocked. However, since he was already here, he could not retreat. Thus, he walked up with a steady pace.
"It’s my honor to meet with you all." Qin Wushuang appeared to show fear and trepidation.
"Elite warriors from the Great Luo Empire have come? Was this information sent from Mr. Chen?"
"Honorable Sirs, there were traces of battle outside the Green Jade Mountain and a body of the Spiritual Battle Wolf was found…" Qin Wushuang probed.
"What?" One of the man in gold robe raised his brow, "Spiritual Battle Wolf? Could it be Little Wind?"
"Impossible? Little Wind is Elder Chen’s buddy. If something happened to him, then perhaps Elder Chen…" Another person said with shock.
Then, another person looked at that man in gold robes: "Elder Lü, if something has happened to Elder Chen, surely they must be elite warriors from the Stargaze Palace! What should we do?"
The man in gold robes said in a low voice: "A Palace Master? Impossible! The Five Palace Masters from the Stargaze Palace would never go out so easily. With the reaction speed, the news should not have spread to the Stargaze this quickly. And the Stargaze would not have been able to send people this swiftly. It has been only less than ten days since the ma.s.sacre of the Purple Cloud Town occurred. We are in the New Year, the news would take three or four days to reach the imperial capital of the Ba Shu Country. To reach the ears of the Stargaze Palace, it would take at least ten days. In total, those people would not have arrived here within twenty days!"
"Then, what happened to Elder Chen’s contract beast, the Wind Wolf?"
Among these people, apparently, that man in gold robes had the highest position. Although Qin Wushuang stood submissively, he noticed and listened to his surrounding.
This man in gold robes was a Middle Stage warrior. His Spiritual Qi presence was even stronger than that man in grey robes. Surrounding the man in gold robe, there were three Middle Stage warriors. Each of them even appeared stronger than that man in grey robes.
Besides him, there were seven or eight other Initial Stage warriors. Each of them were no less than the Core disciples from the Stargaze Palace. It seemed that this group of people were also elite warriors from the Heavenly Lake Empire!
Qin Wushuang knew that before these elite warriors, he should not be calm. Instead, he needed to be cowering in fear. Or else, he would be exposed.
While a Pre-Sky Realm warrior was facing such strong spiritual pressure, one would not be able to remain calm and collected. Thus, to avoid suspicion, Qin Wushuang’s entire body "trembled" in accordance to the situation.
When that man in gold robes saw this scene, he did not feel any suspicion as he made a hand gesture to motion everyone to suppress their Upper Sky presence. He fixed his gaze towards that giant natural pit and said in a low voice: "Until now, I could not figure out anything with this ancient formation. Indeed, we don’t have much time left. I had estimated that at most, we would need ten days. If we cannot acquire any clues within ten days, we must retreat and seal the entire cave. Then, we will come back to investigate again after some time."
Another Middle Stage warrior had a pair of triangle-shaped eyes that made his appearance seem treacherous. He also said: "Ten days should be enough. From the time when we had locked down this location to borrowing so much manpower to open up this cave, we only used about fifteen days. Could it be we found the location of this ancient formation, but we cannot figure out the secrets? Elder Lü, I think that the secrets of this transportation spiritual circle is within this natural pit. The question is, do we dare to try…"
As he looked at that giant natural pit, besides the dense fog, it only seemed strange and eerie and revealed no clues.
These people had built these fences and stairs temporally as they sought to find the slightest bit of clues and to break the secrets. However, they had found nothing after many days.
Indeed, this group of people came from the Heavenly Lake Empire. They had come from the number one sect of the Heavenly Lake Empire, the Archaic Mysteries sect. They were all elite warriors at the Elder level from the sect. A few of them were also Core disciples.
The Archaic Mysteries sect had coincidentally acquired an ancient map and learned of the existence of this ancient transportation circle inside the Green Jade Mountain. It seemed that this transportation circle would transport people to a mysterious place and lead them to the most supreme and the origin of all martial arts.
The entire Archaic Mysteries sect valued this prospect with great importance. They sent out large groups of Elders and Core disciples to lead many elite warriors to infiltrate the Green Jade Mountain. After some thorough investigation, they had finally locked down this area.
When they locked down this area, they discovered that a group of Herbalist disciples from the Stargaze Palace was wandering around nearby the cave.
Of course, they did not hold back and struck first by killing these Herbalist disciples. That group of Herbalist disciples were also unfortunate. They were also extremely curious when they discovered this cave and was in the middle of discussion of going in. However, they had been killed by a large group of elite warriors from the Archaic Mysteries Sect.
How much power would these Herbalist disciples have? Naturally, they could only surrender to their fate when encountering so many elite Upper Sky warriors. However, the hunters and other Herbalists had witnessed this slaughter. When the Archaic Mysteries had discovered, these group of people already escaped.
Thus, the Archaic Mysteries sect decided they might as well fully commit instead of taking half-measures as they started a great ma.s.sacre of the Purple Cloud Town. Under the leaders.h.i.+p of an Upper Sky Middle Stage warrior, they sent three thousand soldiers and surrounded the Purple Cloud Town. Plus the Spiritual Beast acting as the scout, even those who tried to escape by digging a three metre underground route did not escape.
Naturally, not a single person was left alive after the ma.s.sacre.
Of course, Qin Wushuang had no idea of the complications from everything. Hearing the man in gold robes saying these words, he could not help but look at that natural pit.
"So these people set their eyes on this natural pit, and it’s some sort of spiritual transportation circle?" Qin Wushuang thought inwardly, "Perhaps, the disaster had befallen on the Purple Cloud Town because they had learned of this secret?"
As Qin Wushuang thought, although he felt angry inwardly, he did not dare to show it. Any of the four Middle Stage warriors were strong opponents. If the four of them came at him altogether, he would not have any chance to fight back. Especially since they were inside this cave, he was trapped like the stuffing in a dumpling.
With these four Middle Stage warriors, even if Wei Yi and everyone else were here, they would face one result—total annihilation.
They would not have the slightest chance to survive.
Even if both Qin Wushuang and Wei Yi held off two of the Middle Stage warriors, it would be too easy for the other two to fight the eight Core disciples with the remaining Initial Stage warriors. After killing the eight of them, they could come back to deal with Qin Wushuang and Wei Yi, the result…
Qin Wushuang did not dare to continue that train of thought. Inwardly, he was already thinking of an escape plan.
"Send this information back to the higher-ups of the Stargaze Palace instantly!" Qin Wushuang only had one goal .
He knew that for sure, this giant natural pit was extraordinary that had made even the Heavenly Lake Empire take such big actions.
After looking at that natural pit for a while, that man in gold robe looked back to say: "Regardless of the credibility of the news, we should not lower our guard since Elder Chen has been killed. Elder Du and Elder Zhang, you two go take a look."
The other two Middle Stage warriors nodded to agree: "Ok."
Inwardly, Qin Wushuang had a very bad feeling. If these two encountered Wei Yi and the others when they went out, they would suffer a great loss in battle.