Chapter 43: Process

Another mass disappearance!

This taste is indeed very familiar to Li Zhangsheng!

The first time was the disciples of the Longevity Gate elders guarding the spirit vein!

The second time was all members of the Willow Cloud Sect, up and down!

This time it's all cultivators who entered the secret realm seeking opportunity!

The only difference is that the first two times were people actively captured by the Cloud Emperor coming to their door!

While this time, the cultivators actively entered the secret realm to deliver heads!

"'Probably it's the Cloud Emperor's teammate?'"

Li Zhangsheng guessed in his heart.

It seems this Cloud Emperor's teammate is far more steady than the Cloud Emperor!

Choosing this method indeed makes people feel it seems natural, without much suspicion!

After all, a secret realm that suddenly appears and then suddenly closes and disappears, with cultivators inside unwilling to leave due to greed for treasures and thus forever trapped, is not uncommon in the myriad worlds!

Many strange secret realms love to play this trick!

If Li Zhangsheng hadn't previously seen the Cloud Emperor do those things, he would probably think this is just a normal secret realm whose time expired and then it actively disappeared!

But after seeing what the Cloud Emperor did, Li Zhangsheng then connected the secret realm's disappearance with the cultivators inside vanishing together to earlier events!

Of course, these are merely Li Zhangsheng's guesses for now!

Exactly what it is can only be known by going to the scene!

After all, he has a compass that can monitor across time and space remotely!

As long as you go to where the secret realm opens, take out the compass, and you'll know what happened!

Li Zhangsheng put away his fishing rod, set it by the bank, took a sip of wine, then stood up and said: "Let's go, let's check it out."

"'Senior, I already went to check once before and found no traces.'"

"'I've searched all the space around the Wanhe Mountain Range; there's no place that could hide a secret realm!'"

"'That secret realm seems to truly appear out of thin air and disappear out of thin air; it doesn't seem to be left behind by a meditating cultivator or some ancient force.'"

Jiang Yuanqing said.

Their Jiang family also has many juniors who entered that secret realm to seek opportunity and gain experience!

So, he came to tell Li Zhangsheng after already having gone once to the Wanhe Mountain Range to check the situation.

Normally, experts like their Emperor Realm can easily pull out secret realms hidden in the void!

The premise is that the secret realm doesn't run or move!

Ordinary secret realms are actually just hidden in a certain void.

When the time is ripe they open into the world, and when the time comes they close and hide again; generally they don't move!

Of course, there are also secret realms that can move!

However, that kind of secret realm is of a higher grade!

Only experts of the Emperor Realm level have the qualifications to challenge that kind of moving secret realm!

Moreover, once such a moving secret realm appears in the world, the commotion is enormous, and many Emperor Realm experts will sense it!

So, Jiang Yuanqing felt a bit strange…

How could a small-scale secret realm set up for cultivators of the Saint Realm and below vanish without a trace out of thin air?

Of course, in the myriad worlds, nothing is strange!

Such a situation occasionally happening once or twice is not surprising.

If this had happened before, Jiang Yuanqing wouldn't have cared too much.

Those cultivators trapped inside the secret realm can only consider themselves unlucky.

But this time, among the cultivators who entered the secret realm seeking opportunity, two are disciples of the Longevity Gate!

And those two seem to be ones Li Zhangsheng intentionally cultivated; he naturally needs to pay attention.

"'Let's go, we'll know once we get to the scene.' Li Zhangsheng's face showed calm, and then he brought Jiang Yuanqing and teleported to the Wanhe Mountain Range a moment later."

"'Where is the secret realm's entrance?' After arriving at the Wanhe Mountain Range, Li Zhangsheng asked again."

After all, the Wanhe Mountain Range is vast, and Li Zhangsheng's compass can only play back what happened when near the scene!

"'Senior, this way.' Jiang Yuanqing led Li Zhangsheng."

Soon, the two arrived above a mountain peak.

"'This is the place.' Jiang Yuanqing pointed at the mountain below and said: 'According to the Jiang family juniors who entered the secret realm and left, the entrance is just a vertical drop from above this mountain peak.'"

"'Hmm.' Li Zhangsheng nodded, then took out from his storage ring the compass capable of monitoring across time and space."

After taking it out, Li Zhangsheng chanted a few incantations!

Soon, a projection shot forth from the compass in Li Zhangsheng's hand.

Next, it began to play the footage…

Seeing this, Jiang Yuanqing also silently marveled: 'What kind of deduction method can actually project the image?!'

Jiang Yuanqing seriously watched the projected image.

In the image, only a burly man with two dragon horns on his head came to the void above this mountain peak, then took out a scroll of ink painting from his storage ring and slowly unfurled it!

After unfurling the ink painting, the horned man began chanting a few incantations, and a light curtain burst forth from the painting, projecting downward to form a waterfall curtain hanging from the heavens.

That waterfall curtain emitted blazing rosy light, illuminating the surrounding area for several miles, very conspicuous!

"'That horned man is a dragon clan Emperor Realm who has taken human form, and the ink painting in his hand is a supreme space-type treasure.' Jiang Yuanqing felt a hint of surprise,"

"'It turns out this secret realm was activated by an Emperor Realm using a space-type supreme treasure.'"

The footage projected by the compass was just as if it were happening right before their eyes!

As a result, Jiang Yuanqing could sense the cultivation level of that horned man even through the screen!

The screen continued playing…

After the horned emperor arranged the ink painting, he sat cross-legged in the void above.

Then he took out a bag, grabbed some stuff from it, and scattered it onto the ink painting.

That scene was just like when Li Zhangsheng had been scattering bait while fishing at the Jiang family's place these past few days!

"It really is just as I thought; it seems that horned man and that Cloud Emperor are in league."

Li Zhangsheng muttered, then immediately chanted an incantation, and the projected image began to fast‑forward!

Swish swish swish!

Soon, it fast‑forwarded to the moment the black dragon rolled up the ink painting!

At that moment, Li Zhangsheng thought, and the playback speed returned to normal!

"You can even play it like that?" Jiang Yuanqing clicked his tongue in amazement and kept watching.

After the black dragon put away the ink painting, it shot off eastward through the void!

The black dragon passed over Green Prefecture and continued void‑traveling eastward across the sea!

Soon after, he landed on a huge island whose jagged rocks were dotted about, with a towering black mountain standing in its centre.

Black mist swirled around the mountain, and from time to time a wholly black strange bird would burst out from within!

The black dragon went straight into the mountain's interior!

The mountain's interior had already been hollowed out.

All that could be seen inside were crowds of cultivators packed so tightly they nearly filled the whole mountain.

Moreover, a formation was set up inside that restricted the cultivators' every move!

When the cultivators saw the black dragon return, every face showed terror and despair……

"Isn't this Dragon Clan Emperor capturing all these cultivators to offer them as a sacrifice to something?" Jiang Yuanqing frowned slightly, having also guessed the Dragon Clan Emperor's intent.

When did the Nine Provinces Continent gain such an evil emperor?!

So many cultivators have vanished, yet the emperors of the Nine Provinces Continent hadn't noticed a thing?

"Hmm." Li Zhangsheng nodded and put the compass away.

"Do you know what he intends to sacrifice, senior?" Jiang Yuanqing looked curiously at Li Zhangsheng.

Li Zhangsheng shook his head. "I don't know what he's gathering all those cultivators to sacrifice to."

"But I once killed someone who did the same thing as him; they were probably his comrades, clearly part of some evil demon organization."

"No wonder." After hearing that, Jiang Yuanqing also sorted out a few things.

"It looks like the assassin who came earlier to kill the senior, the Netherworld Heaven‑character‑shaped big‑small assassin Kun Xuzi, was hired by their organization."

"Let's go take a look!" Li Zhangsheng said, and the two of them vanished from the spot……