Lin Fan immediately knit his brows when he saw this.
Looking closely at these children, he found that they were of equal gender, five boys and five girls creating a circle. They were placed by opposite genders, going boy, girl, boy, girl, and so on.
And the strangest thing was that each child was completely naked and all over their bodies were black veins that seemed to be pulsating. In those black veins, there seemed to be the black energy that was being gathered in the crystal flowing through them.
The black veins created a net like pattern that completely spread all over their bodies, but there was one common thing about them. All of the black veins seemed to have gathered at a black diamond on their forehead. It was from that black diamond that the black energy gathered in the crystal was being released.
Lin Fan looked even closer and found that while they had a peaceful smile on their face like they were all dreaming, their skin was incredibly pale, without a single drop of blood. It was almost like they had no energy at all.
Lin Fan was about to move one of the children when Brainy's voice suddenly rang in his mind.
"Master, don't touch them!"
Lin Fan immediately knit his brows even deeper as he asked, "Why?"
Brainy hesitated a bit before saying, "If I'm not mistaken, the lines that are on them should be a kind of array that is draining away their vitality. All that vitality is gathered and collected inside the crystal. As for why it's being drained, I'm not certain…"
Brainy had also slithered out of Lin Fan's sleeve at this time to move closer to the children on the ground. It wanted to have a closer look at the lines of this formation.
As for Lin Fan, what drew his attention more was the crystal that was floating above the waters of the fountain.
At first he didn't know what this crystal was, but as he looked at it more closely, it almost felt like there was some kind of strange bond that he had with this crystal. He didn't know why, but Lin Fan couldn't help reaching his hand towards the crystal.
But right when he was about to touch it, there was a voice that suddenly sounded in his mind, "Not yet, it's too early for you to be here. Turn back now and come back when you reach the Legendary Realm."
Lin Fan immediately looked around the room, but he found that there was no one else that had come in during this time. After looking around one more time, Lin Fan asked Brainy, "Did you hear that just now?"
Brainy had been focused on studying the array on the kids, but when it heard Lin Fan talking to it, it suddenly looked up at Lin Fan with a surprised look, "Master, what do you mean? Hear what?"
Lin Fan couldn't help looking even more confused as he said, "That voice just now. It spoke quite clearly, how did you miss it?"
Brainy suddenly looked worried, "Master, are you alright? There was no voice just now."
Lin Fan paused for a second, but then he said, "It was probably my mistake then, you go back to doing what you were doing."
Brainy gave Lin Fan another worried look before turning back to the kids.
Lin Fan had dropped this topic because he had suddenly realized something important. This was a voice that he had heard before, a voice that had left a deep impression on him.
This was the voice of the strange girl he had met in that mirror world!
But it didn't sound as young as that voice, it sounded more mature, like what it would sound like if the girl had grown up. Still, there was no doubt that it was the same voice.
Why did Lin Fan suddenly hear this voice?
The most important thing was that it was telling him to reach the Legendary Realm, just like that girl had done in that mirror world.
Was it just a coincidence or did it actually mean something?
Lin Fan fell into thought for a few minutes, but then he threw this to the back of his mind. Right now he didn't have time to think this over, what was more important was to take care of this array that was on these kids.
Lin Fan moved over to where Brainy was and together, they began trying to decipher the array, looking for a way to break it.
…
Moving away from the slave trade base for a bit, this is the story about something else that was happening at the same time.
Qiang You was rushing through the streets of Rock Mountain City in the middle of the night, heading towards Lin Fan's residence.
As the president of Rock Mountain City's Seekers Union, it naturally wasn't hard for him to find this address, but there was a different reason why he was heading there today. He had suddenly lost contact with the lookouts that he had placed around Lin Fan's residence.
Lin Fan was now one of the most important cooperators of the Seekers Union, so it was natural to put protection around him. However, if he as the Seekers Union president could find out where Lin Fan lived, naturally the strongest force in the city, the Jiang Family would be able to do the same.
After what had happened with the fourth elder Jiang Hei last time, Qiang You knew that this matter wasn't over. He had even made sure to increase the security around Lin Fan by sending some of his best subordinates on lookout duty.
The only reason why he would lose contact with them now could only be the Jiang Family finally making their move.
Qiang You was rushing over now in hopes that he would be able to save Lin Fan, but naturally he wasn't alone. Since the Jiang Family was committing to this, he had also brought his strongest subordinates with him.
Tonight might be the night where they finally fought it out with the Jiang Family. He just hoped that Lin Fan would be able to hold on until he arrived.
After a few more minutes, Qiang You finally arrived at the street Lin Fan lived on.
When he arrived, the street itself was just too quiet.
There was no one in the road and all the windows of the surrounding buildings were tightly shut and locked.
But none of this was surprising to Qiang You.
Since the Jiang Family was committing to this, naturally they wouldn't want more witnesses coming to this street since that would mean more trouble to handle. They would have definitely made sure to blockade this area.
As for Qiang You, he had been rushing here and traveling across the roof, so he naturally didn't see any of that.
Then there were the people who had tightly shut all their windows, they had done so because the best policy in Rock Mountain City was not to get involved.
They could naturally tell that something was happening outside, but there was nothing good about getting involved.
As soon as he arrived, Qiang You immediately put up his guard since he knew that there were enemies in front of him, so he couldn't just rush in. He slowly moved towards Lin Fan's residence, but what he saw there shocked him.
When he came close to the residence, he saw a few dark bundles that were on the ground. Looking closely at those dark bundles, he realized that these were corpses!
Qiang You couldn't believe this and he even took the time to carefully look over one of these. This was a person that Jiang You was familiar with, it was a member of the Jiang Family's shadow squad and one of the group leaders.
The Jiang Family shadow squad were the Jiang Family's professional hit force and all of them were at least in the Gold Realm. The group leaders were even higher up, one had to be at least in the Platinum Realm to become a group leader.
Looking over these corpses, Qiang You recognized all of them as group leaders.
That meant that someone had just slaughtered several Platinum Realm Experts like it was nothing!
Low Platinum Realm Experts weren't that rare, but they were still experts that would be considered at the top of the Blue Star Planet.
Qiang You couldn't imagine what kind of person could kill these group leaders so easily. Even if he was surrounded by them, it would be hard for him to take care of them alone.
Qiang You slowly made his way over to Lin Fan's residence where he found a single figure standing among corpses. This was a figure that he was familiar with, it was the girl from Lin Fan's shop!
It wasn't the young girl who his grandson had confessed to, it was the girl that had always followed behind Lin Fan without saying anything.
When he slowly approached, the girl suddenly looked over at him with ice cold eyes and he felt the aura of death fall over him. Even with his peak Platinum Realm cultivation, he knew that he would die with a single move.
Qiang You immediately raised his hands and said, "It's me, Qiang You, the president of the Seekers Union!"
The girl tilted her head to look at him before suddenly raising her hand to throw out a blade of wind.
Qiang You could feel the power that came from this blade of wind, it far surpassed just the Platinum Realm!
He wanted to do something, anything just to keep his life, but all he could do was raise his arms in front of him.
But when he thought that he was dead, he realized that the blade of wind wasn't even aimed at him.
The blade of wind flew right past Qiang You and continued forth, slashing a cloaked figure that had been running away from the scene.
Qiang You's legs gave out under him and he turned in shock to look at that figure. He could tell from the way the figure was dressed that this person was also a part of the Jiang Family's shadow squad and from the life energy dissipating from him, he was also in the Platinum Realm.
Qiang You turned back to look at the girl, but she had already moved back into the residence. The moment she opened the door, she suddenly revealed a faint smile, transforming her into a completely different person.
She had just gone from the messenger of death standing there to what seemed to be an angel.
It took a long time for Qiang You to come back to his senses, but he now firmly believed in his decision.
He knew that he could never offend Lin Fan's store or it might be him who would lose his life next.