At this moment.
In the clouds, a dozen spirit boats were advancing slowly, heading from the Imperial Capital toward the direction of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
Zhao Guang sat on the spirit boat, his brow furrowed in worry.
Suddenly, a dark shadow approached from the clouds above and descended onto the deck of the spirit boat.
"Caw!"
As the crow—pitch-black as ink—cawed and fixed its jet-black eyes upon him, Zhao Guang's expression turned displeased. "Do you take me for a subordinate of your Li Clan?"
Over ten days ago, Li Yuanshang had sought him out and demanded the locations of every single member of the Grand Tower known to the Immortal Suppression Department.
He had even assigned Zhao Guang specific locations to lead the Department to arrest people from the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems and the Grand Tower, going so far as to dictate the sequence of the raids.
"Does he want me to help the Li Clan attack the Grand Tower just so they can swoop in and reap the benefits from the shadows?"
Zhao Guang sneered.
"Despicable to the extreme. Relying solely on the strength of your Azure Cloud Li Clan, even if you obtained benefits, how could you possibly hold onto them? These are the antics of a buffoon, serving only to make people laugh."
He simply didn't spare another glance at the Dark Crow.
Although he was desperate to extend his lifespan, he, Zhao Guang, was not someone the mere Li Clan could order around.
The Azure Cloud Li Clan had a loud reputation, but they were actually nothing special.
If they truly wanted to secure a foothold in the Imperial Capital, even if the Li clansmen were exceptionally gifted, they were still several thousand years too early!
"Commander."
A subordinate of the Immortal Suppression Department entered the cabin of the spirit boat and spoke respectfully. "We have arrived at the location of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems."
"Mn."
Zhao Guang gave a slight nod and stepped out of the spirit boat.
The moment he arrived, his brows knit together tightly.
The aura in the clouds was terrifyingly violent—containing both Buddhist Dharma and a grim energy of death.
This was the lingering might left behind by a great battle between Integration Realm cultivators, rendering the air around the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems stiflingly oppressive.
"Reporting to the Commander: Holy Monk Yidian battled the True God of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems for seven days. Both sides eventually withdrew. Holy Monk Yidian merely remarked, 'Impressive skill,' before returning to the Imperial Capital."
Upon hearing the subordinate's report, Zhao Guang let out a scoff.
He had known Holy Monk Yidian for a long time. That old bald donkey had always been willful and acted on impulses, never taking anyone else seriously.
"With a temperament like that, sooner or later, he will reap what he sows."
Saying no more, Zhao Guang headed toward the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems. As he approached, his face darkened.
The battle at the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems was far more brutal than his intelligence reports had indicated.
The underground Inverted Mountain had completely sunk; the rock formations of the vast subterranean world had collapsed, causing the center of the grasslands to cave in and form a basin.
Blood and gore from the "Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood" within the mountain seeped through the soil and rock, filling the sky with a pungent, foul stench.
The lingering shockwaves from the cultivators' battle rendered the spiritual pressure over the entire ruin extremely oppressive.
This state of devastation would likely persist for the next thousand, or even ten thousand, years.
"Have you started the excavation?" Zhao Guang asked his subordinate.
The subordinate looked hesitant, pondering for a moment before replying,
"Reporting to the Commander, we... we excavated. I arrived three days ago and used evasion techniques to tunnel into the ruins of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems, but... but there wasn't a single corpse inside!"
"What?" Zhao Guang's expression shifted. "Did all the people of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems flee?"
The members of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems were skilled in stitching corpses; only they would take the bodies away!
"No." The cultivator from the Immortal Suppression Department looked bewildered.
"I have questioned the survivors. When the members of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems fled, they had absolutely no time to look after others. Thirty percent of their cultivators lie buried forever underground.
Many powerful experts perished within—Ling Xu, Zhen Wu, He Hao, Li Dalong... none of them survived, nor could they have escaped from the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems."
"Wait!"
Zhao Guang opened his mouth, hesitating as if to speak, but stopped.
He filtered the question he was about to blurt out before finally asking, "Who killed them? Is there absolute certainty that they all lost their lives?"
"The great battle within the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems was complex. We know very little about the specific details of the combat. Who killed whom cannot be determined."
The cultivator from the Immortal Suppression Department spoke gravely.
"However, the one thing we can be certain of is that both Zhen Wu and He Hao were members of the Grand Tower. Our men had already withdrawn from the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems, yet those two died."
"Our spies are certain of what they perceived: He Hao had managed to shuttle out of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems, but it seemed as though something was hunting him down.
He was struck out of the Void Refining Dimension and crashed to the ground. At that moment, his life force was already completely severed. Yet, when our men went to search for his corpse, it had vanished.
We have already sent a transmission to inquire with the Eternal Ancient Immortal Sect. Their reply was that every single member of the Eternal Ancient Immortal Sect sent on this mission has perished in battle!"
"At the time of He Hao's death, a great battle was still raging within the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems. It was the fluctuation of Zhen Wu's Spiritual power. Yet, once those fluctuations dissipated, Zhen Wu's corpse was nowhere to be found; we only found the final wisp of Void Refining Qi he left behind in his dying moments.
The corpses of other cultivators vanished at the same time. Therefore, we can infer that the two of them died at the hands of different people."
"...."
As the cultivator spoke, he noticed Zhao Guang's stunned expression and couldn't help but call out to him a few times.
Only then did Zhao Guang come back to his senses. "It's nothing. You may withdraw."
"Absolutely impossible!"
Zhao Guang's expression darkened slightly.
Those Dark Crows from the Azure Cloud Li Clan had visited him earlier, specifically to delay his arrival at the scene.
Zhao Guang had formed some half-baked conjectures, but after thinking them through, he actually let out a self-deprecating laugh.
"Li Dalong and Li Yaozu of the Azure Cloud Li Clan... even if you add the Li Family Old Ancestor and the other three Void Refining cultivators of Azure Cloud Prefecture—given their abilities, how could they possibly have killed He Hao and Zhen Wu?"
Immediately, the spirit boat departed once more.
On the ground below, one could still discern the faint semblance of what were once mountain ridges. However, having undergone an earth-shattering cataclysm, traces of Spiritual power still lingered.
It was unclear what manner of great battle had taken place, but it had caused the earth to crack open, turning the mountains into a landscape riddled with rift valleys!
"From the nearest city, the Region Prince has reported back that a great battle took place here five days ago!"
"Based on intelligence brought back by the local Nascent Soul cultivators, we surmise that over three hundred people were present here—they were members of the Grand Tower.
They intercepted an expert, but we do not know exactly what transpired.
Thirty percent of those three hundred cultivators fled in panic from the Void Refining Dimension, only to be hunted down."
"Unfortunately, all traces of their battle have been wiped clean by designing minds.
Even Diviners cannot calculate anything definitive; a high-level expert has shielded the Heavenly Secrets."
"The only thing we can perceive from the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth is that perhaps close to ten Void Refining cultivators engaged in a great battle here..."
The subordinate from the Immortal Suppression Department wore a grave expression.
"An unknown, powerful faction is hunting down the Grand Tower just as we are, and they are one step ahead of us at every turn."
"A spy has appeared in our ranks. I beg you, Commander, grant me a few days' grace. Once I drag this bastard out into the light, I will make his nine generations weep in grief!"
"...."
Zhao Guang couldn't be bothered to care about exterminating nine generations right now.
His face was as dark as charcoal ash.
He turned around, returned to his room, and picked up the Dark Crow. If the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems could be called a coincidence, then what about this?
"What the f..."
Sure enough, the Dark Crow was telling him not to bother going to the locations of the other Grand Tower members anymore, but instead to meet at the Grand Tower's headquarters!
But...
The Immortal Suppression Department had been investigating for over a hundred years, yet they had never managed to find the location of the Grand Tower's headquarters!
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