Other than that the only thing Dai Ya knew was that it was guarded securely even from the royal family members themselves. The only way to see it was to exhibit a certain level of aptitude for cultivation. Not every Han clan member was able to cultivate it.
She did try to dig further into potential suspects, but the means and reach of the Mulberry Sect were limited, and whoever the killer was, they were capable enough to slaughter the entire Han family which by itself had enough power to overturn the Mulberry Sect.
This fact slowed down her progress as she had to be careful with it and there was also the fact that her investigation into the Frozen Serenity Scripture opened her eyes to just how many powerful organizations out there had ties to it. Over the past decade, she had even given up on trying to dig further, and it was only when Xia Ting made her way to the doorsteps of her sect did she talk about the matter for the first time in so long.
Next to her, the man who had come in with her also had a similar story. He looked to be in his late sixties with a head of grey hair, mixed in with some white however his skin was firm and young. He was missing his left eye which looked like a flame had scalded his eye off and extended to his cheek and forehead.
The elderly man was a quasi palace stage cultivator and didn't seem to be far away from reaching the palace realm, and had on black robes with the emblem of a falling star and an array below it. He was an elder of the Falling Star Array Pavilion, a rank 3 organization that focused on formation arrays.
About 974 years ago he was the chief disciple of the Echo Resonance Sect, a sect that specialized in formation arrays and their maiden array was the frozen echo resonance array. An array that had the capabilities of slaying even an early-stage palace realm expert. Cold energy was transmitted in everything from the qi to the air currents down to the sound waves, all with the express purpose of immobilizing the target and freezing them solid to their death.
However, 900 years ago even with such an array, his sect still got destroyed. A rumor started circulating that the Echo Resonance Sect had found a purple fog flower. The news created mayhem among the organizations that were around them, and it continually spread outwards.
The purple fog flower was known around the continent as the palace flower. This was because the fog it produced along with the petals had the ability to increase the odds of a cultivator breaking through from the core formation realm to the palace realm. The odds were astronomical to the point there was a saying that if you had a 10% chance of reaching the palace realm, if you had a purple fog flower in your hand before you did anything else with it, the odds shot to 50% and after you consume its petals and refine the fog it produces, your odds instantly sky rocket to 90%.
With the flower, you couldn't fail even if you wanted to, and it didn't just stop there. It could even shorten the time taken to break through in the palace realm as long as it was within the first four stages. Past that, it had no effect but within the first four stages, if one was to take 20 years, if they consumed the flower they could shorten that time to 11 years.
Therefore when news broke that the Echo Resonance Sect had the flower in their possession, friend and enemy alike instantly targetted. The sect tried to disprove the rumors, but no matter what they did, no one would believe them because who would admit they had the purple fog flower if they had it? Them denying it, only increased the odds that they had it.
The final nail in the coffin was when the purple ray that is produced when the flower blooms appeared in their sect. Chaos broke that same day, and the sect was besieged right, left, and center.
The frozen echo resonance array was deployed in full force and its brilliance was revealed to the world but ultimately it still fell to the constant besiegement especially since there was no palace realm cultivator at the sect to man it.
If it did, the Chief disciple, Gong Renshu felt their chances of survival may have been higher. But all that was wishful thinking because in that chaos, he saw a cloaked woman mix in and attack his master who was the sect master along with a few elders. Within minutes they had all been incapacitated, which came as a shock to Gong Renshu since his master was a quasi palace stage cultivator and the elders next to him were all late stage core formation experts.
However, in ten minutes or less, they were all defeated, and the cloaked woman went on to interrogate them about the frost echo resonance array, and its original blueprint.
Gong Renshu managed to get away with his life when his master deployed a taboo art that gave him enough power to crush a teleportation talisman that he used to get Gong Renshu and himself away. The talisman would transport them to a random location within the continent.
While they managed to get away, it wasn't without a cost. While they were making their getaway, the cloaked woman attacked, which other than making the spatial tunnel they had created unstable, the attack tore through his master, and a bit of it fell on him, taking his eye.
By the time he made it to the other end, his master had already died. There were no farewells, all he got was the dismembered body of his master. He went into hiding for months before he finally resurfaced, and joined the Falling Star Array Pavillion. Lucky for him, the teleportation talisman had transported him a fair distance away from his former sect.
The Echo Resonance Sect was destroyed and the purple fog flower was never found, and whatever Gong Renshu saw that day was only revealed today. The Frozen echo resonance array they had was also from the frozen serenity scripture, though the blueprint that their sect had was of the secondary array, and from the descriptions left in the blueprint, there were three other secondary arrays, and one primary one.
The five arrays combined together to create a top-tier gold-grade art known as the Frozen Temporal Seal Array.
At his former sect, they all liked to daydream about seeing that array in action just once, sadly all who shared that desire with him, died.
...
"I think with all the testimonies we have heard, along with the evidence presented, I believe we have sufficient information to make a judgment.
Are we all in agreement?" Yang Qing asked his compatriots on the panel.
"We are.."
"Then let's put it to the vote.."
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l