2108 Something has Gone Wrong!

The complaint Lu Tie, the Sanctum Leader of the Azure Dragon Sanctum, had lodged against Duan Ling Tian for destroying his direct disciple's Innate Spiritual Root was only known to those in the Enforcement Hall due to the intervention by Dong Yuan Jin, one of the Vice Hall Masters of the Enforcement Hall. Not only did it not spread out of the Enforcement Hall, but it did not spread in the Fire Worship Sect as well, let alone outside of the Fire Worship Sect.

Lu Tie understood Dong Yuan Jin's purpose in doing so. In fact, he even agreed with it. After all, it would only alert Duan Ling Tian if word of it got out, and as a result, he might not return to the Fire Worship Sect out of fear. Lu Tie did not want this to happen.

Although Lu Tie's action of withdrawing his complaint against Duan Ling Tian did not affect the Fire Worship Sect since nobody knew about it, it caused quite a stir in the Enforcement Hall.

Lu Tie's actions could be considered as slanderous so he had to be punished somehow according to the rules of the Fire Worship Sect. However, the Enforcement Hall elder who was in charge of this was merely a Silver Flame Elder so he did not have the authority to punish Lu Tie. Under these circumstances, Dong Yuan Jin as one of the Vice Hall Masters of the Enforcement Hall had to deal with this matter.

"Sanctum Leader Lu, are you certain you want to withdraw your complaint against Duan Ling Tian?" Dong Yuan Jin looked at Lu Tie with a frown and asked in confusion, "Can you tell me the reason why?"

Naturally, Dong Yuan Jin did not believe Lu Tie's lies about Bu Hong destroying his Innate Spiritual Root while he was cultivating due to a Qi deviation. He thought Lu Tie must have an ulterior motive for doing so. Indeed, he had guessed correctly, but he would never be able to guess the reason why.

Faced with Dong Yuan Jin's question, Lu Tie seemed fearless. He answered indifferently, "Vice Hall Master Dong, I've already said everything that has to be said."

Lu Tie, naturally, knew why Dong Yuan Jin was so dissatisfied and kept pressing him for a reason. He knew Dong Yuan Jin was just feeling disgruntled for losing a good chance to avenge his son, Dong Lin.

"Sanctum Leader Lu, I advise that you tread carefully! You'll be charged for slandering another person. Although Duan Ling Tian's not in the Fire Worship Sect at the moment, the Enforcement Hall holds the right to punish you according to the sect's rules!" Dong Yuan Jin said in a deep voice. There was clearly a hidden threat in his words.

However, was Lu Tie someone who was easily threatened?

"Vice Hall Master Dong, I understand what you're saying. I'll accept the punishment from the Enforcement Hall. However, if I'm not mistaken, my punishment should be a light one since I admitted my wrongdoing." Lu Tie maintained his composure from the beginning until the end as though he did not think much about the punishment he was about to receive. Indeed, he could care less about the punishment. It would only be some insignificant flesh wound. With his cultivation base at the Fifth Form of the Saint Celestial Stage, the physical punishment would only feel like scratches to him.

Dong Yuan Jin no longer said anything after he saw how determined Lu Tie was. However, a sense of suspicion rose in his heart. He had a feeling that Lu Tie was hiding something.

...

Dong Lin's expression changed drastically when he learned about what happened from his father. He found it difficult to accept, but there was nothing he could do to change it. "What? Sanctum Leader Lu withdrew his complaint against Duan Ling Tian?"

Eventually, Dong Lin could not do anything but accept it. However, it did not stop him from feeling resentful. He finally found a chance to seek revenge from Duan Ling Tian but that chance had vanished all of a sudden. How could he not feel resentful?

...

A few days later, the arrival of someone disturbed the tranquility in the Fire Worship Sect.

It was none other than Yang Chong, the fifth elder of the Northern Plethora Sect, who was a close friend of Black Turtle Sanctum's First Silver Flame Elder Li An. He had come to see Li An. However, he discovered that Li An was not in the Fire Worship Sect when he went to the Black Turtle Sanctum.

Upon Yang Chong's request, a few of Black Turtle Sanctum's Silver Flame Elders went to check on Li An's Soul Pearl and they discovered that Li An's Soul Pearl had shattered. Moreover, it seemed like it had shattered quite a while ago.

"Something's gone wrong!" Yang Chong's expression turned grim when he saw Li An's shattered Soul Pearl.

The Black Turtle Sanctum's Silver Flame Elder Teng Shan looked at Yang Chong and asked in a deep voice, "What's the matter, Elder Yang Chong?"

Guo Xiong and Meng Jin who were also Black Turtle Sanctum's Silver Flame Elders turned to look at Yang Chong in confusion. They had no idea what Yang Chong meant when he said something had gone wrong.

Naturally, they were all inwardly shocked at First Silver Flame Elder Li An's death.

Under the watchful eyes of the three Black Turtle Sanctum elders, Yang Chong began to recount what had happened. "Some time ago…"

Naturally, Yang Chong did not reveal that Li An had brought several Saint Celestial Stage powerhouses from the Northern Plethora Sect to investigate Duan Ling Tian's background. He merely said that Li An brought several Northern Plethora Sect's Saint Celestial Stage powerhouses to the Lower Province of the Dao Martial Saint Land. He realized something was wrong when Li An did not return even after a long time had passed. He became certain something had gone wrong when he discovered the Soul Pearls of all the Saint Celestial Stage had shattered as well! He intended to go to the Lower Province of the Dao Martial Saint Land immediately to investigate what had happened, but when he arrived at the nearest Inter-province Transportation Formation, he discovered that the Formation could not be activated.

At that time, Yang Chong only thought there was something wrong with that specific Inter-province Transportation Formation. However, when he went to other places with Inter-province Transportation Formations, he discovered they were not working as well. Then, he began to hear from people who lived close to Inter-province Transportation Formations say that it had been a while that all Inter-province Transportation Formations had stopped working.

"This is why I came to the Fire Worship Sect. Indeed, as I expected, Li An had met with an accident!" Yang Chong looked distressed as he said, "I heard from people who are familiar with Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Upper Province that connect to the Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Lower Province say that if there's something wrong with the Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Lower Province, it would affect the Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Upper Province as well!"

Yang Chong took a deep breath before he continued to say, "However, if the problems lie with the Upper Province's Inter-province Transportation Formations, the Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Lower Province won't be affected. This is because the latter isn't dependent on the former. The Lower Province's Inter-province Transportation Formations won't be affected because it isn't dependent on the former to activate it since it transports people from the Lower Province to random and unspecified locations in the Upper Province."

This was similar to when Duan Ling Tian, Gu Li, and Zhu Lu Qi were randomly transported to a place in the Upper Province. They were not directly transported to an Inter-province Transformation Formation in the Upper Province.

"This is why I'm certain that something's wrong with the Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Lower Province!" Yang Chong concluded.

"Something's wrong with the Lower Province's Inter-province Transportation Formations?" Guo Xiong said solemnly, "Based on what I know, the Lower Province's Inter-province Transportation Formations are more stable than the Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Upper Province. It's said that when our predecessors laid the Inter-province Transportation Formations, they had merged it with the Sealant Grand Formation that's also used to seal the Land of Exile. It shares the Defensive Formation from the Sealant Grand Formation. As for the Sealant Grand Formation's Defensive Formation, even if several powerhouses at the Ninth Form of the Saint Celestial Stage join forces, they wouldn't be able to break the Formation, let alone a single Saint Celestial Stage powerhouse!"

Apart from being the Black Turtle Sanctum's Silver Flame Elder, Guo Xiong was also the Black Turtle Sanctum's Enforcement Elder. He was a knowledgeable person as well. He studied the history of the Dao Martial Saint Land when he had the time. He had read about the Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Lower Province, and its merge with Sealant Grand Formation that was set up by human powerhouses to seal the Land of Exile during the Human-Devil Era. The Sealant Grand Formation was used to seal the path connecting the Land of Exile to the Dao Martial Saint Land. The path was, naturally, a tear in the space barrier.

Since the tear in the space barrier was sealed, the Devil Clans from the Land of Exile had not been able to cross over to the Dao Martial Saint Land for hundreds of thousands of years. Based on this, it could be seen that the Defensive Formation in the Sealant Grand Formation was extremely powerful.

Although there were not many devils at the Ninth Form of the Saint Celestial Stage, there was still a number of them. Even then, they failed to destroy the Sealant Grand Formation!

Due to this reason, Guo Xiong thought it was unlikely that the Lower Province's Inter-province Transportation Formations that shared the Defensive Formation with the Sealant Grand Formation would be destroyed even if several powerhouses at the Ninth Form of the Saint Celestial Stage joined forces, let alone a single Saint Celestial Stage powerhouse.

'However, if it's true that the Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Lower Province have issues, does this mean there's a problem with the Sealant Grand Formation as well?' Guo Xiong's face paled instantly when this thought crossed his mind. Various complex expressions flitted across his face…

Central Region. Sin City.

Bang!

In a quiet room at an inn, there was an explosion from the fourth floor of the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda that had transformed into a speck of dust in the corner. A violent gust of wind swept out in the room in full force.

Loud laughter could be heard accompanying the sound of the explosion.

It was none other than Duan Ling Tian who was laughing joyously as he sat cross-legged in the air. There was an air of excitement around him!

He had successfully made a breakthrough! After two months, he finally managed to break through.

"Early Quintessential Saint Stage." After Duan Ling Tian stopped laughing, he tried to mobilize the Sun Saint Energy in his body and discovered the changes in his

Sun Saint Energy. "Currently, my Sun Saint Energy is comparable to the Saint Origin of a powerhouse at the First Form of the Saint Celestial Stage without the need to use the Elementary Devouring Tactic!"

'There are so many advantages to having a light indigo Innate Spiritual Root. What happens when I improve it to a violet Innate Spiritual Root? How terrifying would my cultivation speed be at that time?' Duan Ling Tian thought to himself delightedly.

However, Duan Ling Tian's good mood did not last long. When he left the inn, he heard a few sectless cultivators' talking. Apparently, there was something wrong with a few Inter-province Transportation Formations in the Upper Province. It could no longer send people to the Lower Province!