Let’s start with this woman’s identity. Her name was Wan Rong, and she was at the Atomic Realm. Currently, she was 483 years old, and her lifespan would be depleted in seventeen years. Even if she wanted to break through, she no longer had the ability.
There were three daughters below her, and all of their aptitudes were considered pretty good. Most of all was the youngest daughter. Currently, she was just in her thirties, but she was already an Immortal Realm martial artist. If things went on like this, she was expected to reach the Ascendant Realm. Ultimately, she would become the city lord of Swallowtail City, and restore Swallowtail City to an iron-ranked organization.
Wan Rong nurtured her three daughters with great care, and whenever she worked as the city lord of Swallowtail City, she did everything with all of her heart. As such, she was greatly loved and respected by the common folk. However, just two years ago, the people in the city began disappearing.
In the beginning, Wan Rong didn’t pay much attention to it.
It was only because, no matter where one went in the world, fighting and hatred were unavoidable. It was an ordinary matter for several people to perish or go missing every day. In particular, those who died were merely Houtian Realm martial artists. How was it worth making a mountain out of a molehill? Bystanders wouldn’t care, and neither would the city lord.
However, when this all started, only one person was lost every month.
These missing people were all young girls in their prime of their youth. Moreover, their appearances were quite beautiful.
Three months passed, and three people went missing. When it was the fourth month, the pattern changed, and one person was lost every twenty days. Likewise, these people were still young girls in the prime of their youth. As such, without anyone realizing it, half a year passed by. During this half year, nine young girls disappeared.
All of the girls were under the age of twenty. They were female martial artists who were like flower buds on the verge of blooming. Although their realms were merely Houtian, once this many young girls disappeared, it finally drew some attention.
In the end, not all of these girls were from ordinary households. Nor did they all disappear into thin air. There were also girls who were originally within clans and organizations, but vanished anyway… Those clans and organizations naturally wanted to investigate.
However, those investigations were of no use.
Several clans joined together, but they couldn’t find any clues either!
In an instant, they realized that something was wrong…
This incident was reported to Wan Rong, but the worsening of the situation couldn’t be stopped.
Immediately following which, one girl disappeared every ten days, and it was with complete disregard for the girl’s identity. It was only based on age and strength. After three months, nine young ladies disappeared. Following another three months, nine young men vanished.
Then, a Xiantian Realm woman disappeared after seven days — The perpetrators were no longer targeting girls. After seven more days, a Xiantian Realm man went missing. In this way, the situation repeated over and over again for another six months.
After that, Immortal Realm martial artists finally started disappearing.
And this time, the frequency of disappearances was one person every three days. Similarly, it was the women first, and the men afterwards.
Wan Rong summoned all of the people in charge of the upper-level forces in Swallowtail City to discuss this matter. If things continued like this, then the situation would become untenable. Perhaps, the younger generations of the entire Swallowtail City would completely vanish, leaving many forces without successors! In addition, what Wan Rong mourned even more was that, among her three children, her eldest daughter and second daughter were snatched away amid this time of trouble! Both of them were valiant, unmarried women, and they wholeheartedly and tirelessly cultivated to bring honor to their ancestors. The eldest was three hundred-something years old, and the other was a little more than a hundred years old.
It was pity that, while Wan Rong mobilized most of the powerhouses in the city, they couldn’t find the whereabouts of the missing party. However, perhaps because of sufficient manpower and everyone was working together with all their hearts and souls, they discovered some traces this time… Although, they would rather have never found these kind of traces.
What they found was a skeletal corpse, and the bone age was less than twenty years old. From the time of death, this should’ve been the first girl who went missing. Not only did this corpse lose its vital yin, even the body’s essence blood had been drained away, turning the corpse into desiccated bones. It was extremely pitiful.
The complexions of Swallowtail City’s powerhouses immediately changed.
Judging from the skeletal remains, the other side didn’t have any goals of annexing or coercing Swallowtail City at all. These were incredibly wicked and evil people. Maybe Swallowtail City itself was already regarded as food reserves…
Due to her fury, Wan Rong brought numerous powerhouses to carefully search the vicinity of the skeletal remains. The more they searched, the more fearful they became. They ended up finding a dozen or so corpses one after another. In the wake of their investigation, they also discovered that the owners of these corpses were the first and second batch of missing girls.
However, more bodies weren’t found. When they gradually approached a certain location, a formidable attack suddenly appeared. Right in front of them, an Atomic Realm powerhouse was struck dead!
The strength of this Atomic Realm was just below that of Wan Rong…
Even if it was Wan Rong, she wouldn’t have been able to kill the other person in a single strike.
After that, the hearts of Wan Rong and the numerous powerhouses palpitated with unease. Having no alternative, they cautiously inspected the corpse of that Atomic Realm powerhouse, and found that the attack suffered by the other party was slightly superior than that of the Ascendent Realm powerhouses they knew about. As such, it ought to still be within the category of the Ascendent Realm. Therefore, during the report, Wan Rong explained that there was probably an Ascendent Realm powerhouse. But whether there was anyone stronger, she wasn’t able to find out.
— Resistance was futile.
Ever since that day, Wan Rong had no choice but to lead those powerhouses to keep guard inside the city. They restricted the citizens to be more careful. Moreover, they let the outstanding younger generations in the city leave as soon as possible.
However, this alone wouldn’t prevent those younger generations who hadn’t departed in time, or only left halfway, from vanishing. Thus, Wan Rong thought of every possible method, and finally contacted Ten Ultimates Sect.
Once Gongyi Tianheng finished listening, he faintly furrowed his brows: “From this, it seems like some sort of cultivation method.”
It really wasn’t something like mere flower thieves.
The facts were indeed as such. After the number of missing girls reached a certain quantity, those who noticed treated this as cases of sexual assault. But in reality, it wasn’t as simple as flower thieves. Of course, although many young men also disappeared, in order to avoid causing too much panic among the citizens, the upper echelons could only keep the matter under wraps, making the citizens believe that this was the work of flower thieves… No matter how much the citizens loathed and hated these flower thieves, it was better than all of Swallowtail City letting people become fish and meat to be carved up.
In the end, this was just to appease the citizens.
A gleam of pain flashed through Wan Rong’s eyes: “The other missing people haven’t been found yet, but I’m afraid that this only bodes ill for everyone involved.”
Tianheng asked: “Where is the location of the other party’s hideout?”
Wan Rong closed her eyes: “It’s probably where we lost that Atomic Realm powerhouse. It’s just that…”
It was just that they didn’t dare to go over there again. Although they knew that it was possible to find out what was going on, Wan Rong understood even more that it was pointless for people of their strength to go no matter how many went. The outcome that ultimately awaited them would be total and utter defeat. For the sake of the bigger picture, before reinforcements arrived, they could only hold on and endure.
There was still one thing Tianheng didn’t understand: “Do those people not know that Swallowtail City is affiliated with Ten Ultimates Sect?”
Wan Rong shook her head: “This old woman doesn’t know if they’re aware or not. But in this old woman’s opinion, if they know, they shouldn’t have acted this insolently. However, there’s also a possibility that the organization backing them has extremely robust foundations, too.”
Tianheng naturally had this guess as well.
Though, he still had other ideas.
The people behind the scenes shouldn’t have been from a large organization. Otherwise, why would there be a need to personally come over and snatch others like this? Just making some deals within one’s own organization would suffice.
But if they weren’t people from a large organization, they either didn’t know about the relationship between Swallowtail City and Ten Ultimates Sect or, although they knew about this connection, they felt they would get lucky — Maybe they thought they could smoothly escape.
Thinking up to here, Tianheng’s complexion turned serious.
If the other party firmly believed they could get away without any problems, wouldn’t that mean they believed that not even someone from Ten Ultimates Sect could obstruct them? And if a place like Swallowtail City got in touch with Ten Ultimates Sect, the sect indeed wouldn’t send a disciple who was too powerful. As such, following a rough calculation, the opponent’s strength needed to be handled more cautiously.
Moreover, for the opponent to do such things, their willpower was certainly resolute. They even might’ve been a little crazy.
After these considerations, Tianheng spoke to Wan Rong: “No matter what, since I’m here, I’ll think of a way to go and investigate. Later on, I hope that City Lord Wan will tell me all the information she knows. Not a single detail can be overlooked.”
Wan Rong heard this, and naturally agreed again and again: “This old woman understands. I only hope that the honorable sect’s envoy can help Swallowtail City and take revenge for my Swallowtail City’s citizens who tragically died!”
Tianheng placated her with a few words, and didn’t discuss much else with her.
Currently, he still needed to straighten out those pieces of information, and try to figure out a few more things.
At the same time, Tianheng dispatched the shadow cat race’s powerhouse: “Ying Yu, I’ll have to trouble you to patrol around the city for the next few days.”
Ying Yu kneeled on the ground: “Yes, young master.”
Right now, the pattern was still one person every three days. It would depend on whether Ying Yu found any traces of that individual.
For a Celestial Realm martial artist from the shadow cat race, which was adept at concealment, there was naturally nothing to scoff at.
In the night.
Gongyi Tianheng scanned through those pieces of information, but didn’t discover anything too unusual or novel. Basically, the content was what Wan Rong summed up — Or it could be said that, with Wan Rong and the others’ capabilities, this was all that they could see.
This wasn’t far beyond Tianheng’s expectations.
One would know after thinking about it. Since the people behind the scenes chose Swallowtail City to do these things, so long as they weren’t stupid, they wouldn’t let anyone know more about it.
Merely, what was going on with those scattered corpses?
Tianheng pondered.
According to his way of thinking, there was probably only one reason.
The other party’s purpose should’ve been to lure Wan Rong and the others over. Then, a thunderous reprisal was used to act as a deterrent force.
T/N: As a warning for readers, Chapters 486 and 487 will contain graphic depictions of sexual assault. Discretion is advised. The trigger warnings for this novel will also be updated to reflect this change.
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