A few days passed since Sam let Night Ghost leave the mission for the heirloom of the Tundra Sect.
At this moment, the Tundra sect leader and the elders along with all the external branch members are searching in the mountain regions and its vicinities in which Sam and his team disappeared.
And Sam and the team are currently watching their helpless and fruitless search on a screen as they camped on different mountain which exactly in the opposite direction of the mountain they disappeared on.
As soon as they entered the mountain region, Sam used the dimensional drifted to quickly transport everyone out of that mountain region to the mountain they are currently staying in.
After they came here, he slowly released small bird puppets everywhere that established a temporary network to see what is happening in the mountain region and how the Tundra sect is searching for him.
From the occasional discussions they had and particularly the one the small bird puppets managed to eavesdrop on, he realized that the leader of the sect is actively participating in the search.
He couldn't help but feel a bit surprised, but he didn't change his plans that much.
At this moment, he is looking at the leader who is having a meeting with some of the core disciples in a cave and in the dark corner of the cave, there is a rotten corpse of a beast inside which one of the bird puppets is currently giving a live feed to Sam.
"What do you guys think about all of this?" He asked the core disciples.
The disciples looked at each other and nobody wanted to answer first.
Seeing them like this, he sighed and said.
"I think we are being played by the other party. From the looks of it, they are clearly not in this mountain region, but they appeared here and disappeared into thin air. I think they deliberately lured us into this complex range of mountains to divert us."
When the sect leader said this, some of them had a regretful expression, they thought the same too, but they couldn't bring themselves to say it out loud. The sect leader continued without minding their expression.
"If that is true, then what could their goal be? Are they really after our blade or are they just trying to find the location of our sect for the fun of it? Or are they trying to play us because we are always hidden and they wanted to give us the taste of our own medicine?
When the core disciples heard this, they started discussing their ideas since they lost of the first because of their timid reaction.
While Sam saw this, he couldn't help but raise a brow and changed the screen to a different live feed.
This one is actually given to him by the shadow mice he left back in the city. Since most of the external branch is busy, they are not that vigilant, there are not many people to keep a tight security, so he let the shadow mice fix some surveillance devices here and there to get a proper look at what is happening there.
And his main focus is on the backyard of the external branch from which the primary target disappeared.
After checking different angles and making sure that all corners are covered, Sam selected the tundra sect on the wrist screen.
A few minutes after he did that, Hel arrived at the Ice statue in the hidden temple of the Tundra Sect. The attendants who were assigned to manage the temple saw it and the word went to the sect leader in no time.
The sect leader widened his eyes in disbelief as he immediately used his golem to rapidly go to the external branch.
He directly went to the backyard and Sam is looking at the scene with utmost concentration.
He looked as the sect leader jumped into the lake along with his golem. Sam was stunned when he saw this. He did have some expectations regarding this and thought that lake might be somehow related to the hidden route, but he couldn't think of. After all, from the golem tracking he did, there is no spatial transfer it is definitely a straight motion.
After thinking of other possibilities he made a few speculations and waited for the sect leader to come out or others to go in and the latter happened. The sect leader seemed to have understood what is happening and called the other core disciples and elders back to the main branch.
Soon, Sam saw many people coming to the backyard and they activated ice elemental fusion let their golem hug them before jumping to the lake together.
Even though Sam was confused, he knew that the entry point was from the lake.
He thought for a moment and left the mountain alone and went back to the place where the golem disappeared.
This time he didn't check the surroundings, he placed his palms on the icy ground and used his observation ability.
Instead of using all his range to look as wide as possible, he used it to increase his vision vertically downwards.
He didn't dare let his concentration waver as he delicately observed every layer of ice that he could see and soon, he was stunned by another revelation.
There is an underground water current deep down.
Sam moved from that location to a bit towards the city and stayed on the path mapped by the spiritual imprint tracking before doing the same on that spot.
He looked carefully and he could observed the tips of the underground water current.
It is deep and it is too far to completely observe it directly.
Sam checked another spot before confirming a speculation.
He immediately went back to the mountain region to hold a meeting with the team.
"I believe they are using an underwater current as a gate for their hidden spot, it is even possible for them to be completely underground. What do you think we should do? Give me some ideas."
Sam said as he himself started brainstorming.
"Why don't you just send a medium sized liquid energy cell into the water current and let it do the work?"
Saber Monarch said casually.
Sam smiled, as he also had the same thought. But he didn't want to do it like that.
"Kiran must be feeling lucky today, he cannot infiltrate even if I want him to." Sam said and Kiran is indeed smiling.
After they gave some ideas, Sam liked the one that was given by Night Ghost.
He instantly sent out a bird puppet with a spatial ring and it was received by the shadow mice in the city and it delivered it in the external branch discreetly.
An attendant saw the spatial ring and took a peek inside, there was a scroll, he looked at the contents, felt shocked and immediately ran to his superior who in turn ran to the deacon. When deacon saw it, he was even more shocked and sent a message to the sect.
A core disciple came and collected the scroll and delivered it to the sect leader.
"The underwater current is good. I am really impressed by that.
Anyway I am Sam and I am pretty sure you would have already heard of me, so I will come directly to the point.
I want your blade. We can do it two ways, one is you give me your blade and your hidden location will remain hidden and two, you don't comply and I will blast open the hidden location and lay you bare for the world to see.
Do not worry, I will compensate you for the blade if you want. I am open for the negotiations. So, to prove that I am bluffing, I left a small gift which would show itself anytime now.
If you want to send a message, just send one of your disciples at lower level to the mountain range you guys are searching and make him drop the message in the cave with the rotten corpse."
The sect leader read this letter and frowned. The first thought that came to his mind is that the other party is bluffing. But as soon as he thought that, he got a message from the deacon that there is an explosion at the lake.
This made the leader let go of all the ideas of the other party bluffing.
He didn't know what to do, he was already in the meeting and he told them this issue to give him some ideas.
While he is busy, Sam also made himself busy.
He took some of the small liquid energy cells, drilled some holes in the path along the underground water current and placed them inside them inside the holes.
This is just a contingency.
When he arrived back at the mountain cave, Gran also came back holding a scroll.
Sam read through it and smiled.
"The other party wants to negotiate face to face. They wouldn't want to continue this otherwise."
Sam said to his teammates and they were surprised.
"Boss, they complied this easily? I think there is a trap."
"Of course, there would be. I would be really disappointed if there is not."
