Shen had his eyes closed as he sat on the ground, staining his pure white clothes. There was one fruit in his hand along which he slowly traced his thumb, feeling the rough surface.
Right now he looked like a completely different person from before. That potent aura that turned the entire space cold before was nowhere to be found.
Right now he just looked like a fragile youngster resting after a long journey in the perfect weather of this 'world' they were in.
"Uncle," Ryfon called out.
Shen neither opened his eyes nor made any moves, continuing as usual.
"Why have you come, Ryfon?" Shen's voice rang in his mind.
Ryfon's expression remained as emotionless as ever, "To ask you about her. What do you hope to achieve from all this?"
Shen's thumb paused and opened his burning blue eyes just enough to peer towards the man standing before him.
It was as if Ryfon's soul was hit by a tank. He staggered back, almost crumbling to the ground while blood poured out of his eyes, nose, and ears.
***
While Ryfon had gone to have a face to face meeting with Shen, Elder Wushing had just finished his preparations to depart from the deep space vessel with the 12 unconscious participants.
Elder Wushing stood at the center of a formation disk about 20 meters in size while the participant's bodies were located around the outer edges, separated from Elder Wushing by a circular barrier that divided the formation disk into two large rings.
The Shadow Regent sat with his legs crossed drinking his tea as usual while several inhuman shadows moved around the formation disk.
"Everything seems to be in order," Elder Wushing mumbled while checking the barrier for the third time.
They were going to return to the beast world on this formation disk which was the personal treasure of the Shadow Regent. It had more than 3,000 minor formations all working in tandem to create one massive energy relay to power the journey back home.
"Is everything taken care of here?" Shadow Regent's voice came from one of the shadows.
Elder Wushing bowed lightly towards the old man, "Yes, Shadow Regent. The cover story I gave them was that the participants need treatment which is only available back on Beast World. No one thinks it's suspicious so we should have no problems."
"Good. Remember what's at stake here! It took a lot of resources for us to divine the location of this place. Although we don't know exactly what is down there, one thing we know for sure is that it's powerful. If even the temple of the God of War couldn't deal with it, then its nothing to scoff at."
"I've completely sealed their minds and bodies so there should not be any danger from them, at least for now. Still, you are aware of what to do in case something goes wrong?"
"Yes, Shadow Regent!" Elder Wushing replied with a determined expression while feeling the cold steel plate in his pocket.
They had taken every precaution humanly possible this time. The steel plate in Elder Wushing's pocket was a key for the formation disk which once activated, would implode the formation disk, effectively killing him and everyone else on board.
This was his duty, one that he had volunteered for himself.
The old man put down the cup of tea and looked up to meet Elder Wushing's gaze. His lips parted for the first as he spoke in a raspy voice.
"Go then. May the Gods watch over you," he finished by making a strange gesture with his hand.
Elder Wushing bowed deeply from the waist, "Yes," and started channeling his Qi into the disk.
With him as he center, orange-colored sigils started lighting up one after another on the disk's surface, creating an eight-sided star pattern.
The sigil's lights continued to grow in intensity until the entire room was colored by their light. The lights dimmed after a few seconds, revealing the empty room. The formation disk along with everyone on top of it was gone.
Several hundred light-years away, in the dark of space a spark of orange light appeared out of nowhere, followed by the formation disk which was surrounded by three continuously revolving rings made of pure white light.
The formation disk only stayed there for less than 5 seconds before vanishing once again, leaving nothing but a darkness behind.
