With a weird light flashing in his eyes, Hu Yifeng stared at the Golden Sun Forest below him.
It was no small matter for core disciples of the Dragon Fish Creed to disappear in the forest. It was especially so when two of his direct disciples went missing.
He could feel that other than Han Tong, his youngest disciple, Zhang Tianhong, had also gone missing in the forest.
That was also the reason he had personally gone all the way over to the Golden Sun Forest to investigate what had happened.
“Let’s enter the forest.”
With four other experts in tow, Hu Yifeng entered the forest.
Despite their strength, none of them dared to move about carelessly in the forest. They summoned their cosmos artifacts almost instantly as they kept their guards up.
Very quickly, one month passed.
Hu Yifeng stood in the air above a certain region of the Golden Sun Forest. In the past month, they had basically flipped the entire forest over. Even so, they had failed to locate any one of the disciples!
In the outer regions of the Golden Sun Forest, they had managed to feel traces of Han Tong and the others by using some sort of secret art, but that was the furthest they got.
They were like ghosts, who had disappeared into thin air after Hu Yifeng and the others had entered the forest.
“Hall Master Hu, could they have left the forest?” someone couldn’t help but ask. The person who spoke was another vice hall master, and he was called Zhang Yu. His disciple, Lin Musen, had gone missing along with Han Tong and the rest.
Hu Yifeng shook his head slowly. “That’s not possible. He didn’t leave the Golden Sun Forest, and neither did he leave the sacred land..”
“Could he have wandered into a spatial tear?” Another vice hall master, Hu Shaocheng, asked.
Several others nodded quickly, and it was clear they believed that that was the case.
There were spatial cracks all over the forest, and it wasn’t rare for their disciples to run into one of them.
A frown formed on Hu Yifeng’s face. He didn’t think that it was possible, and he felt that something was off. He just couldn’t put his finger on it.
Moreover, he didn’t understand why his youngest disciple, Zhang Tianhong, would appear at the Golden Sun Forest. As a Seventh Resurrection Primal Ancestor, Zhang Tianhong wouldn’t be able to protect himself. He even realized that his disciples hadn’t traveled together, and they should have only met each other at the entrance of the Golden Sun Forest.
“As long as I find one of them, I should learn the entire story,” Hu Yifeng muttered under his breath.
Unwilling to let the matter go, they searched the entire area for another month. Unable to find any traces of their disciples, the experts could only leave empty-handed.
“Hall Master Hu, should we let Grand Hall Master Li Xue know about this?” Zhang Yu couldn’t help but ask after they left the forest. They felt that something was off after searching for such a long time, but they couldn’t think of a reason why.
Nodding his head, Hu Yifeng replied, “Alright. Lord Li Xue is a Ninth Esteem Dao Venerable. She should be able to get better results if she came down personally to look for them.”
A Ninth Esteem Dao Venerable was an existence who stood at the peak of the Divine Tuo Holy World. Even though Li Xue wasn’t comparable to their patriarch, her cosmos energy was formidable enough to pierce through most spatial cracks. If she came over to look for Han Tong and the others, she might be able to discover their tracks
The matter of several core disciples getting lost was something that couldn’t alarm Li Xue. However, they had no choice but to alert her.
After all, their direct disciples were the ones who had gone missing.
Han Tong and the others were talented enough to charge straight into the Dao Venerable Realm, but they had gone missing all of a sudden.
Hu Yifeng and the others went straight towards the headquarters of the Golden Sun Forest.
When they were looking for the grand hall master, Zeng Lei of the Mystical Pavilion was getting impatient.
“Is there still no news?!” He turned to Zhang Wen, Chen Shaoen, and the others before asking.
None of them dared to meet his gaze as they lowered their eyes subconsciously.
“There’s no news about Huang Xiaolong.” Zhang Wen lowered his head even further, and he reported cautiously, “Ever since Huang Xiaolong had left the Silver Shadow Creed, he hadn’t appeared anywhere else.”
A layer of frost formed in Zeng Lei’s eyes.
Previously, he had made a deal with Huang Xiaolong. He had gathered twenty strands of beginning qi, and Huang Xiaolong would assist him in making a pill. He had managed to gather everything Huang Xiaolong had wanted in five years, but Huang Xiaolong had gone missing all of a sudden.
Anger had burned in his heart when he had thought of how Huang Xiaolong had ignored his meeting. No one in the world dared to do anything like that to him!
When he thought of the price he had paid in order to obtain the strands of beginning qi, he raged even more. He had begged other pavilion branch masters in order to obtain the strands of beginning qi, and he couldn’t believe that Huang Xiaolong would disappear at the last moment!
Of course, Huang Xiaolong had sent a message to Zhang Wen stating that he would be late to the appointment. He had done it before entering the Dragon Fish Creed, and Zhang Wen had relayed the matter to Zeng Lei.
Despite that, Zeng Lei was trying everything in his power to locate the man.
“Didn’t Yin Yue say where he went?!” Zeng Lei growled.
“She said that she had no idea, and even after we paid a visit to her master, and the Silver Shadow Dao Venerable said that Huang Xiaolong left without telling them a thing.”
“What about Long Jianfei and the others?!” Zeng Lei was on the verge of going insane, and he threw out the names of anyone close to Huang Xiaolong.
“All of them are still in the Boundary Emperor Creed…” Zhang Wen hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“Boundary Emperor Creed?!” Zeng Lei’s voice was cold. “They have to know where he went. Did you ask them?”
“They said that they didn’t know.” Zhang Wen shook his head slowly.
“Bullsh*t!” Zeng Lei’s anger reached the peak, and he roared. “Capture all of them! Search their memories forcefully if they refuse to comply! I refuse to believe that they would be kept in the dark!”
“That was what we planned to do, but Di Bai appeared to protect them. They even said that even members of the Mystical Pavilion wouldn’t be able to grab their esteemed guests,” Zhang Wen whispered.
Zeng Lei was stunned, and his expression was too ugly to behold.
…
Several tens of years passed again.
In the blink of an eye, Huang Xiaolong had remained in the sealed space for twenty years.
After more than twenty years of refinement, the dragon qi in the air started to mellow out.
At the start, Huang Xiaolong’s body exploded every half a day due to the excess energy he gained. After he entered the Eighth Resurrection Primal Ancestor Realm, the excess energy could no longer cause his body to explode.
Moreover, Huang Xiaolong’s grand dao physique became even more perfect after the tempering of the dragon qi.
One fine day, the tribulation clouds gathered again and the ninth tribulation appeared!