C73 Sword Spirit Warned!

"This isn't good."

At the entrance of the forbidden area, the old general, who had been basking in the sun all day, let out a sigh. The Veil of Illusions had suddenly become like a lifeless pond, no longer projecting any scenes.

He knew all too well that this meant the Pearl of Illusion, placed within the Moonfall Sanctuary, must have been damaged—more than half of it, in fact.

The Veil of Illusions and the Pearls of Illusion together formed an intricate set of magical formations.

If more than half of the Pearls of Illusion were destroyed, the entire formation would naturally fail.

This failure also meant that the remaining Pearls of Illusion could no longer connect with the Veil of Illusions.

And it meant that Lee Yuchan, who had ventured into the forbidden area, was no longer able to communicate with him freely through the Pearl of Illusion.

"How peculiar."

The old general gazed toward the east, murmuring to himself, "Lately, our relations with the Crimson Sun Empire have been quite amicable. With Zhou Cangmin preoccupied with his breakthrough and the Empire of Dawn pressing in, how could the Crimson Sun Empire spare the resources to meddle with our trial in the forbidden area?"

The timing of this trial had been meticulously calculated.

The Silvermoon Empire's greatest adversary was currently in disarray, and their state preceptor, Zhou Cangmin, was in seclusion. It seemed an unlikely time for them to stir up conflict.

Yet, the last message the old general had received from Lee Yuchan confirmed an unsettling fact—outsiders had indeed infiltrated the forbidden area.

Previously, the old general wasn't overly concerned because the Veil of Illusions was operational, and he hoped to identify the intruders through it.

Afterward, he would decide whether to personally investigate the forbidden area.

Now, with the Veil of Illusions unable to reveal the forbidden area and his connection to Lee Yuchan severed, he had to proceed with caution.

"Lee Xi."

He rose from his lounge chair, calling out gently.

A guard clad in heavy armor hurried over, coming to a halt with one knee to the ground, and declared, "At your command, Lee Xi!"

"Report to His Majesty that an outsider has breached the forbidden area," the old general instructed with a heavy sigh, his face etched with embarrassment. "I have no knowledge of their identity, their strength, their numbers, or how they managed to infiltrate."

Lee Xi looked up, startled, and exclaimed, "This?"

"Enough talk, hurry back and report to His Majesty," the old general barked, his anger fueled by embarrassment.

"Understood, sir."

...

Lee Yuchan roamed the silver-white expanse in solitude.

"Hu! Hu! Hu!"

An unseen gale shrieked and wailed, enveloping a three-mile radius around her.

The earth bore thin, elongated marks wherever the wind swept across it, as if slashed by a razor-sharp blade.

Had Lee Yu been there, he would have instantly recognized that his aunt, in a fit of rage, had unleashed a tempest with her formidable soul blade.

Her soul blade was not a threat to cultivators who had not attained Subtlety. With her careful restraint, it posed no risk of unintended harm.

However, should a cultivator with a refined spiritual sense be nearby, they would be immediately sensed and assailed by the soul blades.

"Who could it be?"

Lee Yuchan's mood darkened and her irritation mounted.

The volcano within her was teetering on the brink of eruption.

As she searched, every Pearl of Illusion she encountered had been shattered to dust, and she was no longer able to make contact with the Veil of Illusions.

Well-versed in the mysteries of the Pearl of Illusion and the Veil of Illusions, she understood that the invaders must have destroyed over half of the Pearls within the forbidden area.

She stumbled upon the bodies of numerous trial-takers, including those from city teams and members of the five great families.

She had the nagging suspicion that the infiltrators, aware of her presence, had swiftly obliterated the remaining Pearls of Illusion, rendering her and those outside as good as blind.

The intruders were either deliberately avoiding her or leading her astray, making it impossible for her to uncover the truth.

The frustration of not knowing her adversary, being outmaneuvered in the shadows, and the inability to even locate the living trial-takers was suffocating.

She quickly came to the realization that she was dealing with a master.

"This Land of Trials is but a fraction of the Moonfall Sanctuary. I refuse to believe that I can't find you!"

The gale grew more ferocious, howling across the land.

The reach of her soul blade surged, expanding threefold!

Within that zone, any living creature with a soul, if present, would be immediately detected by her.

"Yan Lu!"

Yuan Ting craned his neck upward and let out a silent sigh of relief upon realizing that the newcomer was a trial-taker from the Yan family.

Lee Yu had been gone for a full day and night.

In that time, he had managed to locate other teams and invite them to this rendezvous.

Han Hui and Wu Ji from Asenalenor had arrived half a day earlier after encountering Lee Yu.

Now, even Yan Lu and other members of the Yan family had heeded Lee Yu's advice, a clear indication of the direness of the situation.

With a grim expression, Yan Lu descended into the pit.

Yu Yuan, Zhao Yafu, Yuan Ting, and the others, backed against the pit's icy stone wall, could see why Yan Lu looked so troubled as he and his kin joined them.

Yan Lu was missing three companions.

Members of the five great families, confident in their deep roots and formidable strength, often ventured separately.

The absence of three Yan family members from Yan Lu's side meant they had likely met the same fate as those missing from the Lee and Su families—murdered by someone.

"After a period of silence, Yan Lu suddenly turned to Su Yan. "We've encountered Lee Yu. He told us our luck was poor this time, having run into an enemy incursion."

In his view, among all those gathered at the bottom of the pit, only Su Yan was worthy of speaking with him as an equal.

While he recognized Yu Yuan as an enigma, full of mystery, he did not regard Yu Yuan on the same level as Su Yan, given Yu Yuan's lower realm and the Yu family's relative weakness.

"Could it be infiltrators from the Crimson Sun Empire?"

He furrowed his brow, pondering the implications. "The Crimson Sun Empire should be preoccupied with their own affairs. How could they spare the effort to cause trouble here? Do they not fear a united front from us and the Empire of Dawn?"

"The conflicts between the Crimson Sun Empire and the Empire of Dawn are often fleeting," Su Yan remarked. "Throughout our long history, due to our proximity, we have been their most enduring and formidable adversaries."

Yan Lu huffed, "They must be out of their minds! With Zhou Cangmin still in seclusion and no state preceptor to oversee their actions, they dare to provoke our two empires? I wonder what consequences they are prepared to face?"

"If the Crimson Sun Empire secures Zhou Cangmin's promise and manages to break through in a short period, do you think they're scared?" Su Yan inquired.

"A breakthrough in a short period? Advancing from the middle to the late period of Spirit Walk?" Yan Lu's face paled, and he fell into a sudden silence.

"Zhou Cangmin..."

At the mention of that name, the so-called prodigies of the Silvermoon Empire all wore grimaces. The mere name loomed over them like an insurmountable mountain, weighing heavily on everyone.

It appeared that the state preceptor of the Crimson Sun Empire was indeed the bane of the Silvermoon Empire, a specter that haunted both the old and the young, inescapable and unavoidable.

"Lee Yu once vowed to take Zhou Cangmin's life," Zhao Yafu whispered.

Yu Yuan was about to respond when his consciousness was jolted.

For some unknown reason, the sword light branded on his bones flared with intense heat. In an instant, his arms felt as if they had been transformed into searing hot irons, invisible only because of the clothes he wore.

Without uttering a word, he closed his eyes and concentrated, using the burgeoning spiritual wisdom of his heaven soul to attempt to discern the emotions emanating from the sword light.

Lately, he had frequently examined the White Paper Fan, drawing on the four black characters inscribed on it to further refine his heaven soul. He sensed that during this time, the purification of the heaven soul might prove even more beneficial than the fortification of his physical form.

The heaven soul could grasp the melancholic essence of the White Paper Fan and detect the waves of intent from the sword light.

"Flee!"

"Stay away from here, don't join the main force."

"Depart from this place and venture deeper into the unopened regions of the forbidden area."

"If you stay, you will perish."

"Hurry, escape! Get as far away as possible!"

From the flickering sword light, he deciphered these disjointed messages.

Once the heat subsided, he could no longer perceive any unusual activity from the sword light. But the messages he had received sent a chill through his body, rendering him incapable of continuing his cultivation with any semblance of composure.

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