The stretch of neat land in front of Ming Zi made him pause. Bending down to examine the soil of the suspiciously flat area, Ming Zi’s brows creased in confusion.
"This doesn’t feel right."
Ming Zi took out a crimson gem from his pocket and examined it while his feet carried him through the mile-wide flat area.
The gem’s crimson glow brightened slightly with each of his steps forward. Soon, the gem was glowing like a fiery coal, its light rather eye-catching even under the bright sunlight.
Ming Zi sighed, and clenched his fist around the gem, snuffing out its brightness. Pocketing the gem, he was about to turn around, but sothing in the distance caught his attention.
"This type of residue..."
Ming Zi broke into a sprint so fast that three seconds later, he was way past the land once occupied by Pine Town, standing within the woods miles away from his previous position.
"This qi doesn’t belong to this planet," Ming Zi muttered to himself as his fingers twisted around a wisp of smokey substance, manipulating it into different shapes and states.
"Definitely a Law Cultivator, from the looks of it. That hidden world fragnt should be around here according to Xuan Zi. But it looks like they got the wind of it already. Traces have been erased quite well."
Despite thoroughly searching the woods for the next two hours, Ming Zi couldn’t find the so-called portal that opened the way to the hidden world fragnt.
There were signs of battles among physique transformation realm cultivators and rookie Mystic Artists in so places. But not even an injured cultivator or a dead body remained for him to examine, a highly unusual phenonon considering the battles that had taken place here were all very deadly for that level of power.
Yet Ming Zi couldn’t even find a trace of blood anywhere.
But this was also a clue itself. Sobody had definitely been here and wiped out the traces that could be used to investigate what had happened and track the injured. Whoever they were, their cultivation was at least close to Ming Zi’s own.
They had not bothered to hide all the traces of the battle, because they likely understood that whoever ca to investigate would know about the conflicts here anyway.
Ming Zi put two and two together, and a hypothesis took shape in his mind.
During the battle, a law cultivator from a higher rank civilization had visited this place, perhaps because they had sothing here that they wished to hide from prying eyes.
So they intervened in the ongoing battles and put a stop to whatever was happening here. Then they wiped off the more obvious traces and left a strand of their own qi as a proof of identification. Anyone with a high enough cultivation base would recognize the proof for what it was and back off, unless they had a bone to pick with the Cosmic Law Cultivation Faction.
But...what relationship did that have with Pine Town’s disappearance?
The law cultivators should know better than to ss around in a neutral cosmic territory like this solar system. The person who was undergoing his Dao Integration here was no ordinary cultivator; how dare they disturb his cultivation session!
Ming Zi was both confused and frustrated. After investigating without any luck for a while longer, he returned to the Crimson Snow sect to et up with Xuan Zi.
His report didn’t affect the sect master much.
"All I need to be sure of is that no cultivator undergoing Dao Integration is going to co here and pick a fight with us. Since your excellency can guarantee that no such cultivators exist near my sect, I can rest easy.
"I am not particularly interested in the hidden world fragnt or the inner working of the Law Cultivation Faction, either. So it is actually a good thing that the portal has disappeared. Curious foreign cultivators are no longer going to be attracted to that place and make trouble for us."
Xuan Zi’s concern seed to lie with his sect, sothing that Ming Zi ntally took note of.
"In that case, it is ti I took my leave, little Zi. I need to inform the higher-ups in the clan about the movents of the Law Cultivators here. My hunch tells sothing big is happening."
"As you wish, your excellency. I shall arrange for a comfortable ans of transportation to take you to the voidboat dock."
Xuan Zi left hurriedly. Ming Zi’s eyes followed his nephew until he was out of sight. Then he furtively took out a precious interstellar voice transmission talisman from his luggage.
A faint stream of aningless random noise began to emit from the talisman as his qi entered it. After fiddling with it for a few seconds, the talisman finally connected with the other side.
"Your Excellency, what happened? Have you discovered sothing?"
A clear, concerned voice ca out of the talisman, making Ming Zi smile in elation. But the smile faded fast.
"Yes. But it doesn’t have anything to do with Xuan Zi this ti. That fellow seems to have finally accepted his fate as an outcast. He’s taking his duty as the sect master of a subsidiary branch very seriously," Ming Si said tersely.
There was a pause from the other side.
"That’s good to hear. Maybe he still harbors the delusion that he’ll be accepted back into the clan after making enough contribution," the voice finally said.
Ming Zi’s eyes grew cold for a mont. But he continued the conversation in a warm tone.
"As for the issue I wanted to report... sothing happened to one of our spies stationed on this planet. He seems to have gone rogue during his Dao Integration process."
"Are you sure Xuan Zi wasn’t behind that?" The voice from the talisman rose sharply.
"Yes, I am. Xuan Zi never left the sect since my appearance here. Nor has he used any spells beyond the soul reformation realm. I investigated the place myself, and several clues suggest the involvent of the Law Cultivation Faction. I’ll send you a detailed report once I’ve returned."
"...Law Cultivators? This is going to be troubleso.... Regardless, thank you for your support, Your Excellency. I’ll certainly rember this favor."
"It’s fine," Ming Zi replied gruffly and cut off the connection after saying goodbye.
Ming Zi’s departure from the sect was uneventful. Several Elders alongside Xuan Zi accompanied him to the docks. The spatial intersections outside the planet were not the route he could take this ti.
So he had to resort to normal voidboats. Xuan Zi repeatedly reminded him to investigate that bottle of ancestry determinant potion. Ming Zi nodded along absent-mindedly.
The voidboat soon took off. Standing on the platform, Xuan Zi’s solemn face broke into a strange smirk as he stared at the tiny silhouette of the boat getting tinier in the sky.
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