Chapter 108: Strange
Han Li remained on the spot for a moment before quickly arriving beside Wyrm 16, then helped him into an upright position before feeding him a pill.
"Thank you, Fellow Daoist."
Wyrm 16's wounds were quite severe, and after giving Han Li a quick nod of gratitude, he immediately sat down with his legs crossed to digest the pill and recover from his injuries.
Meanwhile, following the disappearance of the purple-robed elderly man, Wyrm 9 suddenly flew down to the only surviving Body Integration cultivator in the alley next to the courtyard.
Before the Body Integration cultivator had a chance to say anything, Wyrm 9 reached out with one hand like lightning and grabbed onto the man's head with his fingers curled up into claws. Blue light flashed from the palms of his hand, and the Body Integration cultivator instantly fell unconscious.
In the next instant, a horrified red nascent soul was forcibly dragged out of the man's head through the use of some type of secret technique, and it was enveloped within a burst of blue light with a pair of heavy-lidded eyes, appearing to be in a very weak and lethargic state.
Wyrm 9 carried the nascent soul back into the courtyard, and he took a glance at the seated Wyrm 16 before turning his gaze toward Han Li.
"I didn't think that you would be such an expert in arrays, Fellow Daoist. I thought you were deserting the battle, but it seems that I was too eager to jump to conclusions. Please forgive me, Fellow Daoist," Wyrm 9 said.
"You're far too kind, Fellow Daoist. I'm no expert in arrays, I just so happened to have been able to find a fragile point within that space. It's all thanks to your efforts in keeping that layman immortal occupied that I had the opportunity to break open the array," Han Li replied with a smile.
Wyrm 9 didn't speak any further on this matter, and he turned to the nascent soul in his hand with a cold look in his eyes, then raised his other hand.
A plume of thick black threads shot out of his palm before piercing directly into the nascent soul's head.
The nascent soul shuddered as it let loose an agonized howl, but Wyrm 9 remained completely unmoved as more black threads shot out of his palm before surging into the nascent soul's head.
The nascent soul's voice became weaker and weaker, and the look on its face also became more wooden and dazed.
Wyrm 9's brows furrowed slightly as if he were displeased by something, and the number of black threads surging out of his palm abruptly increased drastically.
Right at this moment, a layer of translucent light suddenly appeared over the nascent soul's body, causing it to become semi-transparent.
An alarmed look immediately appeared on Han Li's face upon seeing this, but before he had a chance to say anything, the nascent soul exploded into countless specks of translucent light.
A dark look appeared on Wyrm 9's face upon seeing this.
"It looks like some type of restriction was placed upon his nascent soul, and that restriction is triggered when a soul search technique is used on him. Did you manage to find anything, Fellow Daoist?" Han Li asked as he heaved a faint sigh.
"I didn't manage to find anything useful. Given that he was only a Body Integration cultivator, he most likely wouldn't have known much anyway. However, I can confirm that the Transient Guild members who were previously here have already been killed by them," Wyrm 9 replied.
Han Li's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.
"What do we do now?" Wyrm 16 asked as he rose to his feet.
At this point, he had already recovered somewhat from his injuries.
"Let's conduct a thorough search of this city first. Our covers have already been blown, so we don't need to sneak around anymore," Wyrm 9 replied.
……
Meanwhile.
A dark red louchuan was speeding through a blanket of dark clouds in the sky tens of thousands of kilometers away from Heavenly Water City.
The louchuan had a total of two levels, each of which had several independent rooms. There were several wing designs engraved onto the louchuan, forming eight pairs of giant red wings that were flapping rapidly.
In one of the rooms on the top floor of the louchuan was the purple-robed elderly man who had fought against Han Li's trio not long ago, and he was seated on the ground with his legs crossed and a dark look on his face.
After a brief moment of silence, he flipped a hand over to produce a palm-sized jade plate, then tapped it a few times, upon which a burst of red light appeared on its surface, accompanied by a rather coarse voice.
"How did it go, Chou Wu?"
"I've already fought with the people sent by the Transient Guild," the purple-robed elderly man replied in an expressionless manner.
"I see. Then it's just as I expected," the voice in the jade plate replied in a smug manner.
"The overall power of the people they sent far exceeded what you predicted! There were two Layman Immortals and an Earthly Immortal! If I didn't have some tricks up my sleeve, I could've easily met my demise there! Even though I managed to escape, one of my subordinates still fell into their hands," the purple-robed elderly man grumbled in an incensed voice.
"Oh? Does that subordinate know anything?" The voice in the jade plate also faltered slightly upon hearing this.
"He's just a Body Integration cultivator, what could he possibly know?" the purple-robed elderly man scoffed in a disdainful voice.
"Good. So three True Immortals were sent to your side alone. Looks like the Transient Guild really is coming after us this time. If they decide to back down, then both sides will be spared a lot of trouble, but if they continue to present themselves as a pest, then the holy lord will teach them a good lesson. Thanks for your hard work, you can come back now," the voice in the jade plate instructed.
The purple-robed elderly man's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this, clearly quite displeased that the owner of the voice in the jade plate was issuing him orders, but he didn't say anything and put an end to the voice transmission.
After that, he made a hand seal, and the red light radiating from the louchuan brightened considerably as it accelerated even further.
……
In a certain stone hall in Heavenly Water City.
This was quite a large area, but it was rather empty inside. There were rows of stone pillars standing on either side of the hall, at the tops of which sat a series of unlit braziers.
At this moment, Han Li's trio was standing at the entrance of the hall, and their masks had already reverted back to their original forms.
Seeing as they no longer had any qualms about being discovered, they were able to release their spiritual sense without any inhibitions, allowing them to quickly complete an exhaustive search of the entire city. As a result, they discovered no cultivators above the Spatial Tempering Stage in the city, nor abnormal activity that was worthy of note. However, they did discover this stone hall in a secluded area in the southern part of the city.
At the center of the hall were three corpses placed together in an orderly fashion. All three corpses were completely shriveled up with their faces warped and distorted, as if they had seen something extremely terrifying right before they died. Furthermore, there were also several azure masks that were similar to the ones worn by Han Li's trio placed next to the bodies.
Judging from how shriveled up these bodies were, it looked as if they had had all of their blood sucked dry in an instant.
The fact that these bodies had been placed in this stone hall without any effort made to conceal them indicated that this was a clear act of provocation.
"These must be the guild members who infiltrated the island before us," Wyrm 9 remarked as he inspected the bodies and their masks.
"One of them was at the Grand Ascension Stage, while the other two were at the Body Integration Stage. It looks like they were killed in an instant, and not even their nascent souls were able to escape. I presume this was done by that Layman Immortal we fought earlier. However, thinking back, it seems like he was able to use some power of laws," Han Li said with a contemplative expression as his gaze roamed over the three bodies.
"Looks like Gong Shuhong was already prepared. He set up a meticulous trap, and we fell right into it," Wyrm 16 said in a resentful voice.
"Now's not the time to be dwelling on things like that. It looks like we won't be able to find any useful information in Heavenly Water City. Before we leave, we have to inform Wyrm 3 of the situation, then discuss how to proceed from here," Wyrm 9 said.
After that, he made a hand seal, and a layer of blue ripples emerged over his blue goat mask. The mask then began to flash erratically before abruptly lighting up.
Wyrm 9 immediately closed his eyes, and his lips began to quiver as he communicated a message through voice transmission.
Meanwhile, Han Li and Wyrm 16 stood silently off to the side.
A short while later, the light glowing from Wyrm 9's mask faded, and he opened his eyes.
"What did Wyrm 3 say?" Wyrm 16 immediately asked.
"He instructed us to travel to Dragon Lake City right away to meet up with him," Wyrm 9 replied.
"Have they been attacked as well?" Han Li asked.
"The city that Wyrm 3 and the other fellow daoist are traveling to is quite far away, so they still haven't gotten there yet. However, judging from the situation here, the guild members that they're supposed to meet up with are most likely already dead as well. Now that they're aware of the situation, it won't be that easy for the enemy to catch them off guard," Wyrm 9 replied.
Han Li nodded in response and didn't ask any further questions.
"There's no point in staying here any longer, so let's go." Wyrm 9 swept a hand through the air to release a burst of blue light that swept up the bodies and stowed them into a storage tool, then began to make his way outside.
The trio departed from the stone hall, then quickly left Heavenly Water City and arrived on a barren plain.
Wyrm 16 was just about to unleash a self-concealment secret technique when he was stopped by Wyrm 9.
"There's no need for that. Wyrm 3 says that seeing as the enemy is already aware of our presence on the island, there's no need to bother with concealing ourselves anymore. We can go straight to Dragon Lake City."
He swept a sleeve through the air as he spoke, and blue waves appeared out of thin air in all directions, while a blue flying ark that was over 100 feet in length emerged up ahead. The flying ark was completely translucent, and it was extremely sleek in design with spiritual light radiating from its surface.
Wyrm 16 faltered slightly upon seeing the flying ark, following which a hint of envy appeared in his eyes.
"This entire boat is constructed from Blue Skycloud Crystal. It's not an immortal treasure, but it can't be too far away," Han Li praised.
"You're far too kind, Fellow Daoist. This is only a mere spirit treasure, it can't even begin to compare with an immortal treasure," Wyrm 9 chuckled.
The power that Han Li had displayed during the recently concluded battle had greatly impressed Wyrm 9, and he was unconsciously speaking in a more polite manner to Han Li as a result.
"This flying ark is decently fast and will suffice as a mode of transport. Wyrm 16, try to recover as quickly as possible. I'm sure there are going to be more hard battles to come," Wyrm 9 said as he leaped onto the front of the ark.
Wyrm 16 nodded in response, then also flew onto the ark with Han Li.
With a wave of his hand, Wyrm 9 released an incantation seal, and the blue light radiating from the flying ark brightened considerably as it shot through the air as a streak of blue light.
……
Dragon Lake City was a far larger city than Heavenly Water City. There was a lake in the city that took up over 1,000 acres in area, and it was connected to several large rivers in the city, which flowed all the way out of the city.
It was morning at the moment, and there were many people traversing through the city, presenting a lively and bustling sight.
By the time Han Li's trio arrived in the city, then traveled to a secluded estate in the western part of the city, everyone else had already arrived, but by the looks of it, Wyrm 8's trio had only just arrived as well.
Wyrm 9 provided Wyrm 3 with a detailed recount of events pertaining to the ambush they had suffered in Heavenly Water City, then released the bodies of the Transient Guild members who had previously infiltrated the island.
A cold look appeared in Wyrm 3's eyes at the sight of the shriveled-up bodies on the ground, and everyone else's expressions also changed slightly upon seeing this.
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