"I-it's something really weird. I don't think you will believe me even if I tell you," Yue Ding said hesitantly.
"Don't worry about that. Just tell me what happened. I'll decide if I'll believe you or not," the Elder muttered.
Yue Ding still looked hesitant as if he was unwilling to answer.
"If you still don't tell me, then I wouldn't mind throwing you down from here," The Elder responded with a stern look on his face.
"I... What happened was that I was walking in the hallway of my palace when I saw something lying on the ground. It seemed like a talisman. I picked it up out of curiosity," Yue Ding said.
"As soon as I touched the talisman, I was brought to that place. I was roaming through the city to find out where I was when I saw you guys and the portrait in your hands," He added.
"You were right. It is unbelievable. A talisman that brought you here? Even the longest range transmission talisman can't bring someone so far. What did that talisman look like?" the man asked.
"It was a piece of white paper which had thousands of strange lines on it. I don't remember the exact pattern it formed, but it looked very complex," Yue Ding said.
The Elder looked at Yue Ding suspiciously.
'If what he's saying is true, then something really big is going on here. Someone really wanted us to know about the murders and the identity of the murderer. Is this a ploy against us, or is someone trying to use us against that boy for some reason? Or is this really a big coincidence?' the Elder of the True Dao Sect thought.
*****
Somewhere between the entourage of the Various Sects and Long Chen, there were 3 Flying Beasts.
There was a boy and two girls sitting on the beasts.
"We are going after them, but I don't think we can catch up to them. We might be too slow," Ji Shan muttered.
"Don't say that. We must get there in time; otherwise, Long Chen will lose his family," Mingyu let out as she kept her focus straight ahead.
"I wish Long Chen was back. He doesn't even know that his family is in trouble," Zhiqing muttered as she looked down.
"I want to get there to save his family, but we can only do that if we get there before them. If they get to his home before us, I don't think we would be able to do anything. We can't defeat the top elders of the strongest sects," Ji Shan said as he sighed.
Their beasts were flying as fast as they could to get them to their destination.
Even Mingyu looked grave. She also had no idea about how she could save his family if she were late.
Long Chen had shown his grandpa and other clan members to her previously. She had seen how much he cared for them. She could imagine how heartbroken he would be after seeing his family harmed.
She didn't want to see Long Chen losing his family. She didn't want to see him broken.
"I don't care what I have to do, I will help his family escape," Mingyu clenched her first as she decided.
****
The Shui Kingdom was a small Third rank kingdom. It was a peaceful kingdom that hadn't seen many wars. There were three major clans in the Shui Kingdom and a Royal Clan that was said to be the strongest in the Kingdom.
Even the King of Shui Himself was just an Earth Realm Cultivator. Shui did not have many resources; that's why no high Ranked Cultivator came to Shui to cause trouble.
Long Clan was said to be the second most influential clan in the Kingdom of Shui.
The Clan had many properties and businesses spread throughout the kingdom, but the Main Clan Residence was situated in the Dragon City.
Inside the Long Clan, everything was normal. People were going by their usual routine, unaware of the dangers that loomed over their heads.
Long Chen's grandpa, Long Ren, was the Clan Master.
He was in his room, cultivating. He could feel that he was closer to a breakthrough to the next realm.
Long Ren was a Second Stage Earth Realm Cultivator, but he was close to a breakthrough to the 3rd stage of the Earth Realm.
If he achieved Breakthrough, then he would be in the same Cultivation stage as the King of Shui. The King of Shui was a Peak 3rd stage Earth Realm Cultivator.
Long Ren felt that he would achieve the breakthrough really soon.
In a different part of the Long Clan mansion, a middle-aged woman was sitting on a chair. Even though the woman was over 40, She looked like she was younger than 30. She was Long Chen's mother, Sima Ziyi.
There was a table in front of her, and the food was placed on the table, but she wasn't eating it.
Two girls stood behind her. They were Xue and Mei.
"It has been so long. He's still not back," The Woman muttered as she looked blankly at the food. "I want to know how he is. Is it safe? Is he eating on time or not? What was it that made him go away?"
"Young Master will come back, Madam. When we last saw him, he looked like he was in good condition. He was also very strong. He will definitely come back soon," Xue said.
"Yes, Please eat, Madam. You need to be healthy," Mei also said.
"That boy will definitely get the beating of his life when he comes back. He dared to leave again without telling his mother," the woman sighed.
****
In the Royal Palace of the Dragon City, the Royal guards were on the search for the 3rd Prince, Yue Ding, who had gone missing.
The King was worried about his son, and he commanded every guard to search for his missing son.
Even after searching in the whole palace, the 3rd Prince wasn't found.
The king grew even more worried as he commanded his men to search for the Prince in the City.
"I want the Third Prince found, no matter what it takes," he commanded the men.
****
A Gold Grade Flying Beast entered the city of Shui.
Two people were sitting on the beast. One of them looked like a 17-18-year-old girl, whereas the other person was a middle-aged man.
The girl was Ling, who had broken the engagement to Long Chen, and the man was her father, who was also the best friend of Long Chen's father from his younger days.
They were going in the direction of the Long Clan.
****
All of the 17 Sects had sent an elder to their respective sect to inform the sect about the death of their Elders with the portrait of the culprit.
16 of the 17 Elders reached their Sects safely and gave the information to their sects. There was only one sect that didn't receive any information.
It was the Beast Hall. Long Chen had already killed the Elder of the Beast Hall that was incharge of taking the information to the sect.
All the Sect Masters were furious when they found out what happened.
They were all enraged and commanded their people to find this boy.
They ordered for Long Chen's portraits to be distributed in every corner of the continent, and whoever gave them information about the boy's current whereabouts was to be rewarded with various treasures.
Long Chen didn't know how bad things were getting. Everything was getting out of control, but even if he knew, he wouldn't have cared. His mind was focused entirely on his family, which was in danger at the moment. He had no time to think about anything that was happening in the world.