The entourage of the twenty people thus walked out to the open courtyard, and there it was for them to see. As eye-catching as it could be, a giant green pillar of light was piercing into the sky. It was located in the north and from what they could estimate, it was about a hundred kilometers from their location.
"There is no doubt, it's coming from the site of the explosion." One of the men from the group spoke.
The steward looked at the Lu clan head, who was staring at the pillar with a serious expression. Similar expressions could be seen on the faces of the rest of the people as well. Some looked to be intrigued, while some looked to be a little confused.
"We've already sent some people to scout it out, clan head. But I need further orders, about what you want to do." The steward spoke.
One of the men that was wearing dark Grey robes turned to the steward and showed a surprised expression.
"What?! You sent people to the forbidden area? What is this Lu clan head, are your people now defying royal orders?" The gray robed man spoke in an accusing manner.
The steward who heard the accusing words felt sweat appear on his back and felt scared.
"My-My lords, it's not as you think. We would never defy a royal order, we only sent them to the border of the forest, so that they could observe better." The steward explained himself.
A pissed expression appeared on Lu clan head's face after he heard the interaction.
"Are you done with your inflaming words, Xiong clan head? Don't try to pull your usual schemes here, this is a serious matter." The Lu clan head spoke in a chiding tone.
"The Lu clan head is right, if anything we need to be united right now. Who knows what's happening in the forbidden area now? After last year's tragedy, we need to be very careful." A man who looked to be younger than all of the people here spoke.
The man who had spoken seemed to be in his late twenties and had a shaved face with well primmed hair that was bound in a nobleman's bun. He was wearing yellow robes that had a crane motif embroidered on its back and was holding a polished wooden fan in one of his hands.
He exuded a calm and reserved aura, which made one think that the man in question was an intellectual gentleman.
Clan head Lu's expression eased upon hearing the young man's words and spoke.
"Young master Shirong is right. If a change has happened in the forbidden area, then we need to do a preliminary investigation and inform the royal family of this right away."
"I am in agreement with clan Head Lu's words. We do not want a repeat of what happened last year, we've lost far too many people in a blind chase." An old man that had a head full of white and wrinkled face spoke.
The man who was called as Young master Shirong had an interested expression on his face as he heard the old man's words. He stroked the fan in his hand's couple of times and thought something.
"Forgive me, my lords, but I'm interested in what happened last year. I came here not too long ago and do not know the details, so I request you to explain what happened." Young master Shirong spoke in a respectful tone.
"Ah, young master Shirong need not be so formal with us. You are our honored guest, you have all rights to ask questions." Xiong clan head spoke in a flattering tone.
"Yes, it is fine. I'll shall explain it then for young master Shirong and any others that have questions about it." Lu clan head spoke.
Some of the other people in the group of twenty nodded. Evidently, not everyone knew what had happened before.
"At the start of last year, as some of you know or would have witnessed, a meteorite had struck the Millennium forest. The impact of the meteorite caused a huge explosion, the force of which caused tremors to spread around for hundreds of kilometers.
At that time, there were some people out in the forest hunting for beasts and some others just doing their tasks or traveling. All of them were instantly killed due to the explosion. Tens of thousands of people witnessed the event and were shocked by it.
Later on, we sent teams of people to investigate it. Some of us were sure that the meteorite would contain magical treasures or resources from the outer worlds. Thus we wanted to obtain it at all costs. But we didn't know that this would become our undoing.
Not only had that meteorite damaged a huge area of the forest, but that very area had also become a zone of death. Flaming ground, molten lava pits and toxic fumes, one problem after the other appeared. While the people who were sent to investigate were able to avoid the flaming grounds and lava pits, they did not know of the toxic fumes as they were invisible and had no smell.
Of the hundred people that went over fifty died just from the toxic fumes. All of them then retreated, and we waited for the fumes to clear. We had thought that it was because of the meteorite and would clear after a few days, but we were wrong, very wrong.
Even though the outer edge of the area had become clear of the toxic fumes, the inner areas were still same. We then formulated a new strategy and gave antidote pills to the people that were investigating. But even then their nightmares only increased as they went deeper.
We had known that there are underground caves under the Millennium forest, but we didn't know the extent of it. Because of the impact, the ground had become too fragile in some places. One could not tell the solid ground from the fragile, thus many people fell to their deaths.
Still, we did have some gains. There were shards of the meteorite scattered all over the area, which some of our people brought back. These shards contained the highly prized meteorite bronze, thus we informed the royal place.
While we could have sent cultivators of the core condensation realm to fly over there, we were now apprehensive and we had a bad feeling. This turned out to be true, as when the royal place sent their cultivators to investigate only half of them returned.
They had sent ten cultivators, of which nine were core condensation realm cultivators and one was a nascent soul realm cultivator. Even the nascent soul realm cultivator died there for some reason, and the others did not tell us why.
The very next day the royal decree was sent, and the area was designated as a forbidden area."
The people's expressions were now complex. But all of them understood the seriousness of the situation.
"Hmm, interesting," Shirong muttered under his breath as his eyes lit up with a strange light and a faint smile appeared on his lips that he hid with his fan.