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Owl left them time to express their feelings. Both probably believed they wouldn't see the other, especially Sun-Mi. She might have seemed strong, waiting for him to make the first move and explain things, but she remained a young girl. She had a fragile heart just like anyone else, she wasn't built differently. Seeing the guy that she had a crush on being taken away to the forest by the group of bullies again…Of course, she would worry.

It took them some time to calm down. As they did, they extricated themselves from one another, blushing slightly. They were both young indeed. Owl watched over them throughout without interrupting. This was a moment that belonged to them and he had the decency not to ruin it.

Now that it was finished however, he couldn't remain still. He made sure to remind Jung-Su that they had to return quickly. Of course, Jung-Su didn't reject the idea and the trio ran away back towards the sect. Owl prayed that they wouldn't be able to track things back to Jung-Su even though he knew it would happen…

...

In a grand hall of the Serene Summer Pavilion, where many life tablets were stocked, a man felt a disturbance. A stone cracked at the very same instant followed by others consecutively. Quite a few of them broke at the same time, it was very unusual. It meant that a group of disciples died together. The man got up, interrupting his meditation to go check which disciples died.

He went to the stone tablets and checked the generation those kids belonged to. It was one of the latest batches. He pondered for a moment before he went out and asked a servant to bring a few elders here.

Three middle-aged man and a middle-aged lady arrived at once. They had cultivations between the 20th and 30th stage, not enough to regain their youth yet. They weren't far from reaching the 30th stage and getting that opportunity though.

As they arrived, they bowed solemnly to the man. It was quite the strange sight considering the man looked younger than them. He wasn't however. He was a senior elder from the sect who had already crossed over the 30th stage and regained his peak youthful physical appearance. It was that of a handsome young adult with long dark hair, blue eyes and sharp eyebrows.

He nodded at the group, satisfied with their speed and greeting and went straight to the topic at hand: "A group of disciples died at the same time not long ago. Here, take these broken tablets. You know what to do. I expect answers soon"

They accepted the broken pieces and bowed once more before departing at top speed. The tablets were linked to the life of a cultivator, it could track them easily if they were alive and didn't take measures against it. Once they died, however, they would slowly lose that worth. That was why it was a must for them to act quickly.

They couldn't sense exactly where they died but could feel the general direction. The group of four elders rushed through the many houses and pavilions of the sect, scaring a few younger disciples. They stepped out of the sect doors, frightening the mortal guards and sped up in the direction the tokens pointed to.

On the way, they spotted a pair of disciples from the sect hugging each other tightly. They didn't think much of it except that they missed their own youths. They continued on their way.

Moments later, they reached the inside of the forest and found the bodies. At least, what was left of it. Headless corpses. The scene was very gruesome. One of the elder had veins popping all over his head from the anger while another was bleeding from how hard he was clenching his fists. The other two elders were more composed but the anger they felt inside was the same.

A sect was a family.

And right now, they could see a bunch of their younger sisters and younger brother's dead bodies. They were obviously aware that whoever did this had the heads of those kids explode. Who could be so cruel and evil as to kill in such a way?! They were infuriated. But there was nothing they could do that would bring those kids back.

Death was an end, a sad one.

They mourned for a few minutes and prayed for their souls. The only thing they could do was to help them rest in peace by catching the monster that dared to do this. They began to observe the crime scene.

One of the elder stated the obvious as a way to start the investigation: "Their heads exploded. They all died in the same way"

The sole woman in the group nodded and added: "Considering the distance between them and the lack of signs of battle, it must have happened in a short time. They didn't even have the time to counter-attack"

A third elder retorted: "No. Look. These ones seemed to have tried to flee. It wasn't that they didn't have time but rather that they tried to flee instead"

The first elder added: "They must have been scared after witnessing such a macabre spectacle"

The other three nodded with sad smiles on their faces. Young disciples remained relatively safe inside the sect for quite a long time. Even as they grew older, sometimes, they remained in the sect. Few ended up having experiences of the outside world and its cold reality. Was it the fault of the sect? It was hard to say. Sending them out early on would put them in danger as well, maybe even more.

Leaving those thoughts aside, the first elder asked the others: "What do you think could have scared them so much? Only the bloody scene?"

The second elder snickered: "Isn't it enough?"

The fourth elder nodded. While the third elder bent over a body and deduced: "Considering the blood traces, they imploded from the inside. This might be the reason they tried to escape before anything else. They couldn't see such a move"

The first elder asked: "You mean that they were inside the murderer's Domain?"

The fourth elder nodded. The group became pensive as they looked at the different traces left from the massacre. It did seem like they always exploded from the inside. This was something that could be done easily through the use of a Domain even at a lower stage as long as one had the mastery. Even a weaker cultivator could kill another with this kind of capabilities over a principle. It wasn't as simple to master it though. Only a genius at energy manipulation could do so. That or someone far stronger than the disciples. As a matter of fact, the four of them could have done so but they were over the 20th stage. At their level, there were all kinds of seemingly better ways to end cultivators weaker than them. More than anything though, they had no reasons to bother with those of inferior cultivation. If it was a strong cultivator, they didn't comprehend his motive.

The fourth elder asked: "Could it be a mad man or an evil cultivator?"

The third elder bent over a corpse and put his hand on its dantian. He sensed for a moment before he shook his head sideways and stated: "The core is still in its soul sea and there aren't any missing parts on their bodies. It shouldn't be an evil cultivator"

The first elder pointed out something: "You're wrong, look. They are missing fingers"

The third elder shook his head sideways as he pointed his finger towards an area a few steps away. They could see all the missing fingers over there and just as many spatial rings. The third elder added: "He or she probably robbed them"

The other three nodded and fourth raised the question: "Do you think this could be the motive?"

They all rejected this idea. Disciples at this stage were too poor. It wouldn't be worth it for an expert to kill them and a mad man would likely not be interested in their possessions. They truly wondered what happened…

Then, the second elder pointed to somewhere and said: "There's something over there"

They went over and could see that the soil was muddy. It was if water had seeped through the ground there not long ago. The second elder left the honor to the third to check. He bent over and grasped some of the earth before bringing it to his nose and sniffing.

His expression distorted as he admitted: "Pee"

The other three chuckled, mocking him. They thought he ended up sniffing some animal pee. What he said next changed their mind: "Human pee, you dolts!"

The fourth elder retorted: "Doesn't make it any less disgusting"

The third elder glared at him before he spoke: "This mean that there was someone else here who survived. Someone who was scared enough to pee himself"

The first elder concluded: "So, one of the victims survived? We only need to find that one to get our answers then"