Chapter 103: Master of Red Moon Island
The top of the boar-masked man's head suddenly sprang open, and a blue nascent soul with a horrified look on its face flew out before attempting to flee into the distance.
Wyrm 3 flicked a finger through the air without even taking a single glance at the nascent soul, releasing a ball of fire that instantly vanished into thin air.
Close to 10 kilometers away, a streak of fire caught up to the blue nascent soul in an instant.
A dull thump rang out, and Wyrm 32's nascent soul exploded into a burst of blue light before vanishing out of existence.
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this, but no one was able to see anyone else's expression due to the fact that they were all wearing masks.
Wyrm 3 swept his gaze over everyone, and there was no intimidation in his eyes. Instead, his eyes were completely aloof and apathetic, as if he were looking at a bunch of inanimate objects.
It was as if in his eyes, the people around him were no different from the rocks and trees on the island, or were simply tools at his disposal.
"The mission you'll be carrying out is to kill the master of Red Moon Island, Gong Shuhong," Wyrm 3 declared in a cold voice.
This announcement was immediately met with a surprised reaction, and several people in the group clearly had their reservations about this mission target.
Han Li's brows also furrowed slightly beneath his cow mask. He had heard about Gong Shuhong from Luo Feng before, and this was certainly not going to be an easy target to assassinate.
According to Luo Feng, Gong Shuhong was a powerful Earthly Immortal with a mid-True Immortal Stage cultivation base. He cultivated the laws of blood, which were an extremely rare branch of the laws of water, and he was renowned all over the Black Wind Sea for his brutality and bloodlust.
Given how vicious and violent he was, he definitely had a great number of enemies, but not only was he extremely formidable, the power of laws that he cultivated was also extremely troublesome to deal with, so no one dared to go after him. Han Li certainly wasn't expecting such a fearsome character to be the target of their mission.
"Wyrm 3, with all due respect, Red Moon Island has always been a very mysterious place and very rarely interacts with the other islands.
“On top of that, for some reason, the island went into isolation several thousand years ago, and all outside cultivators are prohibited from setting foot on the island unless their presence on the island is considered to be necessary by the island master.
“It's said that all trespassers are executed without exception..." the goat-masked Wyrm 8 said in a rather hesitant manner.
"There's no need for you to worry about that. The guild has previously already sent people to infiltrate the island, and they've brought back a great deal of information. We would've waited until we managed to learn more about the island before releasing this mission, but half a month ago, the higher-ups in the guild passed down an order for Gong Shuhong to be killed as soon as possible," Wyrm 3 said as he took a glance at Wyrm 8.
"According to what I've heard, Gong Shuhong ranks near the top among all island masters in the entire Black Wind Sea, only below the masters of the central islands. On top of that, he has many Layman Immortals serving him, so he's not to be taken lightly," the tiger-masked Wyrm 16 said in a grim voice.
His sentiment was immediately supported by the owl-masked woman, who said, "Indeed. On top of that, as an Earthly Immortal, he'll be at the height of his powers on the island that he rules over. If we venture onto his island recklessly, we could..."
"What nonsense! Those so-called Earthly Immortals are just failed immortals who don't possess the aptitude to pursue any other paths of cultivation! Only in a pitiful place like your Black Wind Sea is someone like him considered to be a formidable target," Wyrm 3 scoffed with more than a hint of ridicule in his voice.
Han Li had been observing in silence this entire time, and he noticed that both Wyrm 8 and Wyrm 9 displayed very slight reactions to what they had just heard, seemingly taking objection to Wyrm 3's derogatory words.
However, neither of them expressed their displeasure beyond that.
"Let me make this clear. If there are any deserters or cowards who are constantly hanging back on this mission, you'll meet the same fate as Wyrm 32," Wyrm 3 warned in a cold voice.
Even though everyone was wearing masks, a few of them couldn't help but exchange a few glances, and through their non-verbal communication, it was clear that they were all praying for the best.
Wyrm 3 paid no heed to everyone's reactions as he swept a hand through the air, and a burst of red light instantly appeared in the sky.
A draconic roar rang out from within the light, and a dragon-shaped flying ark that was rough 200 to 300 feet in length emerged.
The entire was fiery red in color, and at the front of the ark was a figurehead carved in the form of a dragon's head. The entire ark was riddled with smooth golden spirit patterns, as well as engravings of fiery clouds, indicating that it was no ordinary treasure.
Wyrm 3 leaped up into the air before landing at the front of the spirit ark, following which his slightly rigid voice rang out again. "What are you all waiting for?"
"This is... an Acquired Immortal Treasure! As expected of an immortal of his caliber..." the goat-masked Wyrm 9 couldn't help but praise as he looked up at the fiery red spirit ark, then leaped onto it behind Wyrm 3.
Everyone else also rose up into the air, and a hint of envy appeared in the eyes of many of them upon hearing what Wyrm 9 had just said.
Most of the people gathered here were Layman Immortals, and not only did they not have a single immortal treasure to share between them, barely any of them had ever even seen one before.
Han Li was also rather taken aback, and he couldn't help but take a few extra glances at the spirit ark.
After everyone had jumped aboard, Wyrm 3 made a hand seal before casting a series of incantation seals into the spirit ark, and the entire ark instantly lit up with bright red light as scorching crimson flames appeared over its surface, resembling several soaring fiery dragons that carried the ark rapidly into the distance.
The speed at which the ark was moving was truly astonishing.
……
Several days later.
A streak of fiery red light sped across the sky above a turbulent blue sea, then suddenly stopped in mid-air, revealing a dragon-shaped flying ark inside.
Atop the ark stood several masked figures, and they were none other than the members of the Transient Guild who were traveling toward Red Moon Island.
At this moment, Han Li was standing on one side of the ark, casting his gaze toward a large island close to 100 kilometers away.
To call it an island was a bit of an injustice as it was countless times larger than Dark Veil Island and resembled a huge continent.
"Here's some information regarding Red Moon Island. Take a look for yourselves," Wyrm 3 said in an emotionless voice.
He then swept a hand through the air, releasing several white jade slips that flew toward Han Li and the others.
Han Li accepted one of the jade slips, then took a glance at everyone around him, upon which he saw several people pressing their jade slip against the glabella of their mask.
He did the same thing, and sure enough, once the jade slip was pressed against his mask, a series of images and text instantly appeared in his mind.
After inspecting the contents of the jade slip for a moment, Han Li's brows furrowed slightly as he discovered Red Moon Island was even larger than he had anticipated. It was truly like a continent.
"Wyrm 3, I'm assuming those six or seven locations annotated on the map in the jade slip must be the places where Gong Shuhong is most likely to appear. Which one should we go to first?" the goat-masked Wyrm 9 asked.
"In order to ascertain his location as soon as possible, we're going to split up into three groups and infiltrate the island from the east, the west, and the south. Each group will explore the annotated points closest to them first, then gradually advance toward the center of the island until we track him down," Wyrm 3 replied without any hesitation.
Han Li's heart stirred slightly upon hearing this. He had already anticipated this type of arrangement, and in reality, he wanted nothing more than to be split up. In fact, the ideal situation would be for him to go off on his own, but clearly, that wasn't going to be possible.
Sure enough, Wyrm 3 continued, "Wyrm 8, Wyrm 13, Wyrm 21, the three of you will form a group led by Wyrm 8, and you'll enter the island from the east to explore the annotated points on the eastern side."
The monkey-masked Wyrm 8 cupped his fist in a salute to accept the order.
The bear-masked man and the owl-faced woman also nodded in response before joining Wyrm 8 in silence.
Wyrm 3 then swept his gaze over the remaining guild members, and continued, "Wyrm 9, Wyrm 15, Wyrm 16, the three of you will form a group led by Wyrm 9, and you'll enter the island from the west."
"You can count on me, Wyrm 3," the goat-masked Wyrm 9 declared with a respectful salute.
Han Li and the tiger-masked man exchanged a glance with one another, then joined Wyrm 9.
Wyrm 3 didn't even bother to take a glance at Wyrm 9. Instead, he turned to the eagle-masked man as he instructed, "Wyrm 25, you can accompany me and enter the island from the south."
Wyrm 25 accepted the order in a slightly hoarse voice, then made his way over to Wyrm 3.
"Gong Shuhong is adept in the laws of blood, so he's extremely sensitive to auras. On top of that, there are surveillance restrictions set up all over the island. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't have to worry as our masks can conceal our auras, but if we're too careless with the use of our spiritual sense, then there's a very good chance that we could be discovered.
“Hence, do not use your spiritual sense after entering the island unless it's absolutely necessary to do so," Wyrm 3 said in a stern voice.
"Yes," everyone replied in unison.
"One last thing: if any of you find Gong Shuhong before I do, do not engage him in battle and immediately notify me using your mask. Even though it's very unlikely that he'll be able to detect us when we're using our masks, as a safety precaution, make sure to also only use your masks when absolutely necessary," Wyrm 3 continued.
"We'll be sure to keep that in mind, Wyrm 3," Wyrm 9 immediately said in a respectful voice.
Han Li placed a hand on his mask, and he suddenly recalled how Wyrm 3 had transmitted his voice to him through the mask upon his arrival on Sea Fig Island. It seemed that this mask was indeed quite a mysterious treasure.
"Let's begin!" Wyrm 3 declared, then stowed the spirit ark away with a wave of his hand.
He then reached out to grab onto Wyrm 25 before speeding away to the eastern side of the island.
Wyrm 8 and his group also departed as streaks of light.
Wyrm 9 took a glance at Han Li and Wyrm 16, then departed toward the west, followed closely by Han Li and Wyrm 16. However, what was worthy of note was that they were significantly slower than the others.
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