Fairy, return my flying sword to me

Chapter 196 Killed
Lin Jian asked sincerely, "Perhaps only two veteran body cultivators would know the truth about this situation."

But clearly, their sincerity was misplaced.

Faced with this situation, even the two seasoned body cultivators, who had seen it all, looked completely bewildered. "We don't know..."

"I've never seen this before..."

The woods were silent.

This knowledgeable elder wasn't really that knowledgeable, was he?
So he had no choice but to go forward and investigate himself.

A wisp of spiritual awareness was released, and it was easy to sense the flow of spiritual energy from the faint lines formed by those starlight.

"It seems to be part of an array..."

Lin Jian looked up and followed the lines of starlight to a greater distance, only to find that his vision could not penetrate the dark night.

Its spiritual sense could only probe between these few points of starlight, and was not even as wide as its field of vision.

"...It seems to still be functioning. Would the sect set up some kind of magic array at such a far distance?"

Lin Jian shared some of his observations.

Upon hearing this, the two body cultivators exchanged a glance, both seeing disbelief in each other's eyes.

An array formation appearing at such a great distance from the sect's headquarters...

Moreover, judging from the starlight, it seems to extend far beyond into the dark fog.

Such a large-scale magic array with such a wide range could not possibly have been set up by four medium-sized sects that frequently rotate their defenses here!
For a moment, their throats bobbed, and they both swallowed hard.

"Did I guess right?"

"You crow mouth!"

"I never thought it would actually let me see it..." Xiao Tixiu said with a mournful face.

They said they wanted to see the magic array that separated the entire Heavenly Abyss Demon Rift from the normal Xuanhuang Realm, but when it actually appeared, they felt like the sky had fallen.

Can this kind of magic array be displayed to people under normal circumstances?

Anyone can see that's a complete disaster.
"What should we do now?"

"The elder didn't say what to do in this situation?"

The two of them were in a panic, like headless flies, but they didn't know what they were panicking about.

The magic array that divides the entire Heavenly Abyss Demon Rift space has revealed its true form. No one knows the meaning behind it or the potential harm or benefit it may bring.

Seeing the two looking bewildered, Lin Jian shook his head.

What kind of new era physical cultivation formation?

"Go back and report," he calmly instructed. "We must let the sect know first, no matter what. It's pointless for just a few of us to guess here."

It's even uncertain whether this thing is a magic array used to divide the entire Heavenly Abyss Demon Rift space.

The two body cultivator brothers readily agreed, "Alright! Let's go back then."

Lin Jian waved his hand, "Go and come back quickly!"

The two body cultivators were taken aback. "Aren't you going back?"

"I'll watch from here." Lin Jian's eyes were fixed on the line of starlight in front of him, full of interest.

"But..." Xiao Tixiu stammered.

Da Ti Xiu insisted, "The elder said that the three of us should always be together."

Lin Jian listened to Ge Li Ge's angry words, "I'm not going to stay with the two of you forever."

"That won't do," the little body cultivator said seriously.

Da Tixiu counted on his fingers, "The elder said that we must form a team of three and no one can act alone. We brothers absolutely cannot leave Junior Brother Lin here alone! We'll all go back together!"

Lin Jian released his spiritual sense to carefully observe the faint starlight, but found the incessant chatter in his ears quite annoying. "Then let your junior brother stay and keep me company."

“That won’t work either,” the cultivator retorted earnestly. “That would make me a single person…”

Is it a double blockage?

Lin Jian couldn't resist kicking his thick, firm buttocks. "Just go now! Who knows what other changes might happen while we're on our way back to report? I have to stay here and keep an eye on things."

"This……"

His large, thick hands rubbed his buttocks, still somewhat unsure of the force and angle of the sudden kick. "We..."

"roll."

"Good Le!"

They both agreed.

……

"Have you found out who spread the message?" The Nascent Soul elder, who was overseeing the front line, asked with a frown as he looked at the Golden Core stage sect leader who was rushing over.

They had also heard the rumors circulating among the disciples.

The most important thing is that almost everyone knows the true number of casualties among the Zhengyang Sect disciples.

This was not something they intentionally spread.

Although the initial five deaths may not sound alarming, they might even have a morale-boosting effect to some extent.

But what about next time?

What about next time?

No one can guarantee that the Zheng Yang Sect's garrison will be able to achieve such low casualties in every subsequent demonic tide.

If public opinion is not controlled, who knows if these disciples will collapse due to the excessive casualty rate once the number of casualties increases?

Therefore, even if the current situation is not bad, they must consider the future.

First, we must find the source of this rumor!
Who exactly has access to such detailed statistics?

"Not yet..." The sect leader, who was at the Golden Core stage, lowered his head slightly, the words on the tip of his tongue, but he hesitated, unsure whether he should speak or not.

The elder immediately saw the hesitation in the other party's eyes, snorted and took the initiative to ask, "What else is there? Just say it all at once. What's the point of being so hesitant?"

"...Another...another disciple has fallen in battle."

The elder was taken aback, his expression one of disbelief. "Died again?"

The sect leader lowered his head and remained silent.

"How many died?" the elder asked in a low voice, his brows furrowed.

"Two...two." The sect leader lowered his head, feeling his face burning red.

The demonic tide has temporarily subsided, and theoretically there shouldn't be any sufficiently threatening demonic creatures in the entire Heavenly Abyss Demon Rift for the time being.

As mentioned before, monks are human beings with brains.

If you can't win, run away; if you can't run, your teammates will save you.

At most, they lost the lives of five disciples when the demonic tide arrived.

Now that the demonic tide has subsided and things are calm, there shouldn't be any losses.

But the fact is that it happened.

Two of the life tablets that represent the lives of all disciples were broken... These were the sect's basic magical artifacts used to monitor disciples participating in the Heavenly Abyss Demon Rift defense battle at all times.

The jade shattered, and the man died.

This means that two disciples of the sect were attacked in the Heavenly Abyss Demon Rift, which should have been relatively safe after the demonic tide had receded.

"When did this happen?" the elder continued to ask.

"Just now." The elder closed his eyes and sighed softly before flicking his sleeve and saying, "Let them be."

In the past, during the peaceful periods of the Heavenly Abyss Demon Rift, deaths were not uncommon. However, in the current tense environment, any casualty is an unacceptable price to pay.

But what can you do besides accept it now that it's happened?

"Patrol teams always go out in groups of three or three. Since two of them have died, the remaining one should be brought back. Find out where his two companions were killed, and then you should personally take action to eliminate the source of the disaster."

The sect leader cupped his hands and said, "Yes, Elder!"

However, after waiting and waiting at the camp, the disciple who had returned with the news did not come. Instead, they received another piece of bad news—

Another disciple's life tablet shattered.

Five of them shattered at once, which is enough to start a direct confrontation with the demonic tide.

Upon hearing this news, the team leader flew into a rage.

"Broken again?"

The demonic tide has receded, so how could people die just from clearing out minor hidden dangers on the map?

Or perhaps... this is not a minor hidden danger?

The elder, who was initially furious, quickly guessed the likely truth.

If a danger has already taken shape, and the disciples who go to investigate are completely unaware of it, they can easily fall into danger due to their ignorance.

Where did they all die?

No disciples who accompanied them have reported back yet, and they have no way of knowing whether the fate tablet is good or bad.

However, each group of disciples would divide up a general patrol area when they went out on patrol.

Otherwise, some areas will be flooded with people while others will be completely ignored, making it impossible to conduct a perfect investigation.

They clearly can't wait any longer!
Does anyone know what the surviving members of the murdered team are doing now?
It might be heading back intact, or it might be badly injured and hiding in some corner, barely clinging to life.

We must have a Golden Core stage sect leader lead the team to directly eliminate the existing deadly threat!

Otherwise, who knows how many more ignorant disciples will fall into the hands of demons and be framed!
After all, they have life tokens that allow them to know the disciples' status, something the patrolling disciples themselves don't know.

If any more ignorant disciples step into the same area, it will only cause greater losses.

However, when asked about this by the elder, the sect leader looked embarrassed, "The area they patrol... is not just one place."

There are seven people in total, at least three teams of disciples.

The three teams all come from different, roughly patrol areas, and theoretically, they are completely opposite, with no possibility of overlap or handover.

"This..." The elder frowned, gradually realizing that things might be developing in a way that exceeded his original expectations.

Three completely different directions, yet all three presented a great threat that made it difficult for the disciples to even escape.

This is simply unimaginable.

The only possibility is that some previously undiscovered anomaly has occurred within this Heavenly Abyss Demon Rift.

"Quickly!" After calmly considering the situation, the elder instructed the sect leader, "Find the other two sect leaders and each lead a team to investigate the direction of the three groups of murdered disciples. You must find out the truth behind their deaths!"

"Yes!" The sect leader accepted the order and left.

Watching the other person's departing figure, the elder looked back at the terrifying demonic eye floating in the sky not far away.

Black energy condensed within the demonic eye, staring maliciously at everything outside like a black pupil.

When he looked over, he could almost see that the black cloud of mist, like a human pupil, possessed its own emotions, staring back at him without fear...

A deep sense of unease began to gnaw at his soul.

The unprecedented and unknown developments created a deep sense of uncertainty for him regarding the upcoming deployment.

However, even though he was stationed there, he was unable to find out what had actually happened at the scene.

Only the unknown remains...

Just like this dark space itself, it was filled with a fear that threatened to drag people into hell.

"Elder!" The sect leader's loud call startled the elder who was deep in thought.

"What's up?!"

The sect leader, who had returned, looked somewhat flustered for the first time. "There are more and more... two more disciples' life tablets have been broken."

He wasn't the only one this time.

The other sect leaders he found, who were originally planning to set off to investigate the situation, also came along with him.

"What happened?"

"I heard that several disciples have died?"

"What danger did they encounter? Did some demonic creature of the Tribulation Phase rank slip through the demonic tide just now?"

“No…” The most senior sect leader, who was in charge of reporting on everything, shook his head with a wry smile. “They were killed in different directions.”

The entire Tianyuan Demon Rift is vast; even demons that consider it their home ground could not possibly move such a wide distance within it in a short period of time.

Not to mention that these disciples were killed in close succession, which could not have been done by the same source of danger.

"So that means several wild monsters capable of killing our disciples have suddenly appeared?"

"It couldn't have been a natural gathering. Even if the Immortal Sect was powerless to investigate, they couldn't possibly have raised so many demonic creatures that even Foundation Establishment disciples couldn't contend with within a month!"

"Could it be that the Heavenly Abyss Demon Eye has also been activated elsewhere?!"

One of the sect leaders considered this unacceptable possibility.

"No!" the elder denied immediately. "The Zhou Tian Xing Dou Grand Array here was set up by people from the Holy Land! As long as the array is still there, Tian Yuan cannot tear open any other exit within this area!"

"Investigate! Investigate now! All of you, investigate! You must find out exactly why those disciples were harmed!"

Yun Feiyang stood among them, his brows furrowed in deep thought for a long while, before finally asking, "Do you know which disciples were killed?"

The sect leader in charge of the report didn't mince words and immediately rattled off a list of names.

Yun Feiyang murmured the same words repeatedly, but when he got to the last two names, he suddenly paused.

Seeing his sudden change in expression, the other sect leaders were also filled with anticipation, "Did he discover something?!"

"Shi Zhenyue... Shi Poxiao".

What happened between them?

"There's something wrong with them?!"

“No…” Yun Feiyang’s eyes were fixed on him. “I picked them both.”

They were the two body cultivator brothers who were in the same group as Lin Jian.

Although these two brothers aren't the brightest, they are certainly capable.

Moreover, they have great respect for the strong, and believe that as long as Junior Nephew Lin shows off a few skills in front of them, he can easily subdue these two big oafs.

These are the two bodyguards he specially selected to protect his junior apprentice, Lin!

But now, the guard is dead?

The guards are dead, but what about the people they were protecting?
Upon hearing Yun Feiyang's words, the sect leader also thought carefully, "The name of that sword cultivator is not on the list."

"He'll be alright!" Yun Feiyang gritted his teeth. "He'll definitely be alright!"

Although he was reluctant to admit it, Yun Feiyang even felt that if everyone was placed in the same dangerous situation, even if something happened to him, nothing would happen to him.

But what if?
After all, Yun Feiyang truly saw in that kid the hope of inheriting the sect's future!

"I'll go find him!"

(End of this chapter)