Lin Mu looked back at the faint traces of the teleportation rift. "And they were thought to be… destroyed?"
"Yes. Wiped out by an alliance of sects nearly a fifty thousand years ago or even more. They had burrowed deep into old volcanoes, twisting their energies, conducting blood rituals, summoning magma beasts, and worse.
Eventually, the major sects—Xian Sword Sect, Silent Lotus Temple, and the Darkhan Dynasty—led a crusade to root them out. They succeeded, or so we believed."
Daoist Chu stroked his chin. "And yet here they are… back from the grave."
"It seems they never left," Elyon said, tone dark. "They just sank deeper."
Meng Bai looked worried. "Do you think the Ephemera Sect is working with them?"
"I'd wager they are," Daoist Chu replied. "There's too much overlap in the methods. The Ephemera Sect has been subtly abducting and replacing people. The Drowned Crescent was known to do the same. Subversion, possession, corruption from within."
