22

While Hong was facing his problems, two people seaching for the origin of the beast horde were facing their own problems.

After dealing with the sacred family, Ye Zong was determined to at least deal a single blow to the dark guild for bringing a beast hoard onto his city.

So the moment the Nei Li said he wanted to go on an expedition to the outside, Ye Zong had dragged the boy out of the city himself.

Following the path of the demon beasts was easy , because even after months, the trail of destruction they had left was still evident. They both followed the trail till they reached a clearing spreading out for miles at the origin of the trail.

"Looks like they herded beasts from the mountains, and gathered them here before releasing them to the glory city "

Ye Zong remarked as he noticed the several paths leading to the clearing.

Nei Li nodded in agreement before he pointed at something.

"Father in law, look, the entire clearing is clearly circular, but notice how the grass at the four cardinal directions are more grown than the ones around"

Ye Zong got up into a tree before observing the phenomenon Nei Li described.

"That means, they placed some artifacts or array points at those areas to contain them in the field "

Then seeing the understanding dawn on Ye Zong's face, Nei Li concluded in a grim tone.

" The only explanation is that they can fully control a demon beast horde, not just direct them."

This left both the explorers even more determined to find any clue about the dark guild. And so a search began. Ye Zong scoured the ground while Nei Li traversed through the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse.

They wondered around the clearing for hours with no clue and Ye Zong had already lost his drive, when Nei Li shouted,

"I think I found something!"

They both fused with their demon spirits and sped towards the area Nei Li had spotted. And when they did arrive, Ye Zong began to doubt if they had been doing this entire time to miss such an obvious clue.

The area Nei Li had found seemed as if a natural disaster had passed by. Trees were uprooted and seemed to have found a new destination in the branches of others while trees further away from what seemed to be the epicenter of an explosion had snapped right in the middle. It was worth noting that each tree was at least a meter wide. That made both Nei Li And Ye Zong pause.

The power released must be at least black gold rank, Nei Li deduced while looking at the damage,then looking at the ground he noticed the lack of any type of beast print or burn marks. He felt something he seemed to be familiar, but the feeling went away as quickly as it came.

"With the lack of burn marks and heavy prints, it's most likely a water type or wind type demon spiritualist who made the attack, though I'm leaning on the probability of it being the last one" Nei Li observed , to which the city lord nodded before adding his own piece.

"The power seems to be at least at the peak of black gold realm, but i don't see any sign of what he was fighting against. And why there's only evidence of one attack." Ye Zong remarked according to his own experience,to which Nei Li agreed.

After experiencing a lifetime of battles between spiritualists, Nei Li knew observed many patterns. For one, spiritualists at higher realms never use all the power from the begining of a fight. This is a common occurrence in all realms because , not only would that leave them vulnerable to other attacks, but also emptying the entire soul force into one skill almost always lead to internal damage. Be it physical or other.

While Nei Li pondered on this dilemma, Ye Zong caught the scent of something. As a legend ranked spiritualist, he was more attuned to the surroundings than his self proclaimed and possible future son in law. And since he was yet in the transformed state, he had the senses of a demon beast that allowed him to find something unnatural. Following his instincts, he soon found himself at the edge of the explosion. But what caught his eyes was not the lack of damage around the area, but a small shiny piece of metal lodged in the trunk of a tree.

"Brat, get over here"

Ye Zong yelled to grab Nei Li's attention as he turned back into his human form, before pulling the small metal shard out using his thumb and index finger.

'Kreeek'

The shard came out with a painful creak, a testament to the power behind it, revealing a small blade which Nei Li immediately recognised. Ye Zong , seeing recognition flash across Nei Li's face, questioned him impatiently.

"Well.. what is it?"

"That's a flying knife. A hidden weapon that requires a lot of training to master because they need really good control over their soul force."

Then taking it to his hands, he turned it over a couple of times before he continued,

"This one belongs to the bodyguard of Xiao Ning'er. "Due to Hong's interference, the relationship between Nei Li and Xiao Ning'er never developed any further.

"You mean that other kid with the special techniques? What are his stuff doing in here?"

Nei Li had the same question. He did briefly ponder on the assumption of Hong being an agent of the dark guild, but he quickly dismissed it due to the lack in evidence. Then he began to observe the mark it had left on the tree trunk, and to his suprise, he found it to containing a mix of soul force and physical energy.

An array point. Nei Li deduced it's function immediately with his expertise in the field. Then after circling around the edge of the explosion, he was able to find ten more array points. As an explorer in his past life, Nei Li was familiar to an extent with physical energy. He had seen come across a few arrays that used the physical energy of living things to know how they work on an academic level. Sure, they had used sacrifices to acquire the energy while the energy present in the array points were physical energy ,manipulated from one's own body, but still they worked in the same principle.

With the positioning of the ten flying knives, Nei Li was able to deduce it's function as an concealing array. Which then gave birth to another problem. Why did he erect a concealing array near the beast horde, and why did he leave his weapons behind. And more importantly, where was he?

Under the city lord's order, Nei Li dispatched the soul puppet to the city lord mansion before asking for more manpower. Especially spiritualists with demon spirits with tracking abilities.

And after a few days of searching, they were able to find only one item belonging to Hong, a spatial pouch filled with demon beasts.