Lonemoon stretched out the name list in his hands, becoming more surprised as he read on, he hadn't noticed it earlier, but looking at the name list from several years ago right now, there were chunks of names following behind East Tsui, at first count, there were actually up to a hundred of them, almost ten times and more of the other countries.
"Isn't this way too exaggerated?!" Anyone could tell that this name list was problematic, even if East Tsui was some valuable paradise, it's impossible to have more than a hundred Earth Immortals ascend in a year. Moreover, whether they ascend or not, depends entirely on the cultivators themselves, it has nothing to do with the location in the immortal world. Could it be that, that array formation, could really stole all those ascended immortals and send them to East Tsui?
Lonemoon could not help but looked closely at the name list in his hands and specially took note of the circumstances of the other countries but realized that there weren't any trends of a significant decrease. Then, what was going on?
"Yu Hong, how much do you know about this East Tsui?" He turned to look at the person beside him.
Yu Hong thought for a moment before replying, "I don't know much about the situation regarding the situation of the Bo Sea countries either, I've only heard that East Tsui, on top of being located in the extreme East, the country is made up of some scattered small islands. A few years ago, there were still very little immortals settling down there, but later on, after Yu Cang became the emperor, all these small islands united together and built many immortal towns, and it's been progressing, at present, its capability isn't inferior to any of the other countries."
"The recent years?" Lonemoon frowned. "You're saying that East Tsui had only developed recently." Seems like it really has something to do with that array.
"Yes!" Yu Hong nodded. "When the disciples of the sect do business, um... no, when they complete tasks from the sect, they often head towards the various immortal towns of East Tsui. The level of prosperity there is not in the least inferior to the other countries."
Lonemoon frowned, finding it increasingly problematic as he listened on, he thought for a moment before turning to Yi Qing and saying, "Seems like I really have to go take a look personally. Chef, you ought to recognize the array formation, come along with me to the immortal town to confirm it."
"But... I still got to practice cultivation." Yi Qing frowned, looking slightly dissatisfied.
"How's that cultivation? What you're doing is demolishing alright? Proper business before anything else!" With that, he turned towards Yu Hong again. "Yu Hong, we'll be away for some time, I'm not sure when we'll be back, I'll leave all matters of the sect to you."
"Yes."
"We're going." Lonemoon opened the passage through space and was about to step into it.
Shen Ying immediately waved. "Father Niu, all the best."
Lonemoon paused in his step, turned around and hollered towards the top. "You're coming along too!"
"Huh?" Shen Ying's claw instantly dropped. "So troublesome."
"Shut up!"
With that said, he turned, grabbed and stuffed a certain lazy bum into the passageway, and while at it, also pushed Chef, who had his mind completely filled with thoughts of demolition in.
Within seconds, the few of them appeared on a small island, from far, they could already see a small immortal city floating midair.
"Chef, are you able to sense that array formation?" Lonemoon asked.
"There are numerous array formations in this immortal city, especially when there are defense array formations outside of the city, it's very difficult to differentiate which is the Mystic Spirit Array from the outside." Chef shook his head, then something flickered in his eyes as he questioned, "Shall we split it open to take a look?" A great opportunity to practice his sword too.
"Scram!" Lonemoon's mouth twitched, you wastrel.
"Yu Cang did not speak the truth, seems like he is intentionally trying to hide something. Taking the chance that he's still on the way back, we'll enter and figure out the situation." It would take at least a 10 day journey from Invincible Heavenly Palace to East Tsui, even if he flew on his sword, they'd arrived by tearing through the void and naturally would've made it before Yu Cang. After some thought, he also produced a hand seal, suppressing his cultivation to that of a Golden Immortal.
He then turned towards the two people behind him and instructed, "Chef, suppress your cultivation, hide your true appearance, don't let yourself be recognizable." After all, he was the Celestial Emperor of the Bo Sea, there would be portraits of the emperor everywhere in Bo Sea. "And Shen Ying you too... Never mind!" Anyway, other people can't see her too.
Shen Ying: "..." Son of a b*tch!
The few of them prepared for some time, before flying on their swords, heading into the immortal city above.
Yu Hong was right, this immortal town of East Tsui was indeed very crowded, they'd entered only a small town on the northern side of East Tsui, but the town was filled with cultivators, not any less than those former large immortal towns.
Lonemoon casually glanced across and realized that most were low level cultivators, amongst them most were earth immortals. Instead, there were very little mystic immortals and Stygian immortals, it was impossible to find even one within several streets, not to mention any Exalted immortals.
Yi Qing had sensed the position of the Mystic Spirit Array the moment they entered the town, holding Shen Ying's hand tightly, they headed in that direction together with Father Niu, The odd thing was that this Mystic Spirit Array wasn't hidden away, but carelessly set up on a piece of empty land in the east city and there weren't anyone keeping watch either The immortals in the town seemed to know what that was and were completely unbothered.
Lonemoon was stunned for a moment, Yu Cang was snatching people so brazenly, wasn't he afraid that the other countries would have objections? But after thinking it through in detail, he understood. If this array could only change the locations of the people ascending from the lower realm, other countries might really not be bothered. After all those who had just ascended only had the cultivation of earth immortals, no matter how much potential they had, it would only matter a few thousand years after.
Then what exactly was Yu Cang trying to do, taking great pains to set up such an array formation? Could it really simply be making it convenient for people's search for their families?
"Chef, how is it?" Lonemoon looked towards Chef who was studying the array formation in detail,
Yi Qing then retracted his powers that he was using to survey the array formation, frowning, he said, "There's no problem with the array formation, nothing abnormal with the realm gates either, and there are also remnants of Spirit Qi here. If I am right, this array formation has been activated within the last three months."
"What?" Lonemoon was shocked. "Wasn't it said that there hasn't been anyone ascending into East Tsui for five years already?"
"I'm not very sure either." Yi Qing shook his head. "But someone has indeed ascended through this array recently."
Lonemoon fell silent for a moment, thinking for a moment before said, "We'll go take a look in the other immortal towns.
Hence, they went to more than ten immortal towns in a row, and found that the array formation in every immortal town was the same, no signs of any damage and amongst them, there were remnants of Spirit Qi near two of the array formations, indicating that someone had ascended.
Why would Yu Cang spread such a lie that would be exposed with one look? And even if he intentionally hid the fact that there people had ascended, or even if Yu Hong did not manage to find this piece of information, could it merely be to make them believe that there are problems with the realm gates?
"Can we eat now?" Shen Ying who had been dragged along everywhere couldn't help but ask. "It'll be dinnertime in another four hours, Father Niu, why don't we head to the city where the city lord lost his grandson for our meal?" There must be lots of good food there.
"Eat your..." Lonemoon habitually wanted to retort her, but faltered. Hold on, lost his grandson? He met eyes with Yi Qing who was beside him and exclaimed in unison.
"Chang Qing City!"
Previously Yu Cang had indeed specially mentioned that, the nephew of the city lord of East Tsui's first immortal town, City Lord Chang Qing had failed his immortal ascension and even wanted to invite Chef specially to check it out, could it be that it was only Chang Qing City's array formation that was problematic?
The two exchanged a look and immediately set off for Chang Qing City. Where it differed from the other immortal towns was that, Chang Qing City's Mystic Spirit Array wasn't as obvious as those in the other immortal towns, instead, it was set up in the City Lord's Abode.
They turned themselves invisible and infiltrated the abode, spending some efforts before they found the array formation.
Just as they were about to go nearer for a closer look, Yi Qing suddenly stopped in his steps and looked at the array formation before them with slight surprise.
"What's wrong?" Lonemoon also stopped walking.
"This array...." His expression darkened. "Actually has death Qi surrounding it."
With a wave of his hand, a few swirls of spirit Qi gathered towards it, and sure enough, bits of black Qi appeared, floating above the array, but they disappeared in seconds.
"Holy shit!" Lonemoon was also shocked, death Qi surrounding the array, doesn't that make it a killing array?
Yi Qing stepped forward and placed a hand on the array, sending a trace of power over but it was rebounded back within moments, even carrying a very domineering aura, but dissipated the moment it touched his palm.
"The realm gate here has indeed been closed." He stood up then, frowning before he corrected himself. "No, I should say... it's been locked."
Lonemoon, "..."
What?
(⊙_⊙)