As Xuan Hao was making his way over to the border village where the plague outbreak had first started in the Flying Sword Sects territory, others from both the Raging Flame Sect, Spring Flower Sect and Seven Fates sect were making their way to the border village where the outbreak had started in their territory.
The first to reach his destination was an elder from the Raging Flame Sect, the reason for this was that the Raging Flame Sect itself was located quite a bit closer to the border area compared to the Flying Sword Sect or any of the other sects, so with that in mind, the elder reached the border village that had first been infected by the plague in the territory of the Raging Flame Sect.
"Hah… Why do I even need to come out and check this god forsaken village…? The plague has already mostly left the Raging Flame Sects territory by now… Why do we need to care about what happens in the central region…? Can't they deal with it themselves…" As he grumbled to himself, the elder of the Raging Flame Sect entered the village and saw the still decaying corpses of the people who had perished from the plague.
Compared to Xuan Hao's first reaction to the people who had died to the plague, the elder from the Raging Flame Sect did not really seem to care as he just waltzed directly into the village itself without caring about the dead bodies.
The elder from the Raging Flame Sect did not really care that much about the plague or finding anything that could help cure it, after all, if he had planted the plague, would he leave something that could help cure it behind?
Them going out to inspect the first infected villages was merely an attempt by the Heavenly Sky Kingdom to try and find anything that might end up helping them out of their current situation.
All of a sudden, a violent energy suddenly erupted a few meters away from the elder of the Raging Flame Sect as he was walking through the quiet village without paying too much attention to his surroundings.
"Wha-" The elder from the Raging Flame Sect was caught off guard and even with his quick reaction speed he only barely managed to dodge the surprise attack.
But this was not without any repercussions, as his left arm had been hit causing him to lose all feeling in it for a moment.
Following this, four black robed individuals showed up and surrounded him, directly launching another attack before the elder from the Raging Flame Sect could even comprehend what had just happened.
Whoosh!
Just as the four attacks were about to hit him, the elder from the Raging Flame Sect woke up from his earlier bewilderment and quickly jumped into the air in the direction of one of the black robed men.
Boom~
A large explosion soon followed as the elder of the Raging Flame Sect launched a giant ball of fire at the black robed man, exploding it just before it reached him, causing smoke and dust to fill the entire area.
The large explosion caused the divine sense of the black robed men to have a harder time locking onto the elder of the Raging Flame Sect as the elder in question quickly used the situation to speed into the distance, trying to run away before the black robed men locked onto him again.
Fumbling with a communication talisman in one hand while speeding away from the village, the elder nervously infused his qi into it as he waited for the communication talisman to light up and connect to the current Vice Sect Master of the Raging Flame Sect.
All of this happened over only a few seconds, as the black robed men soon realized what had happened and quickly chased off in the direction that the elder from the Raging Flame Sect had run.
"Elder Flame Beard, what is going on? Why are you contacting me? Did you perhaps find somet-"
"Vice Sect Master!" As a voice echoed out from the communication talisman, the elder from the Raging Flame Sect quickly interrupted him.
"W-what is it!? Why are you so anxious?" Sensing the desperation in Elder Flame Beard's voice, the Vice Sect Master quickly refocused himself and asked for an explanation.
"I have been ambushed by four black robed people at the Nascent Soul Realm and don't know for how long I can outrun them! All of them have a weird symbol one their chest, it looks lik-"
Just as the Elder Flame Beard was about to finish his explanation a powerful dark green energy shaped like a sword suddenly appeared directly in front of him, cutting him down on the spot.
"Elder Flame Beard what happened!?" The voice of the Vice Sect Master sounded out from the communication talisman as he already knew deep down that the black robed men that Elder Flame Beard had talked about most likely caught up to him.
Swish~
A small orb of light escaped from Elder Flame Beards body as it flew into the distance at a speed way faster than he had moved before.
This was his Nascent Soul that had barely managed to survive the earlier attack, now that he had lost his physical body, he had no way whatsoever to fight and his future path of cultivation had mostly been caught off unless he could somehow recreate his body or become a pure soul cultivator…
But that was easier said than done as there was not a single cultivation technique for the path of a soul cultivator in the entire Heavenly Sky Kingdom…
At least he could fly and move at a way faster speed now that he was no longer burdened by his physical body any longer.
The black robed man who had laid in ambush a little further away from the rest look at the escaping Nascent Soul and let out disgruntled noise.
"I did not expect his nascent soul to survive… Looks like we failed… At the very least he should not be considered a threat in the future." Not minding it too much, the black robed man who had ambushed Elder Flame Beard regrouped with the rest of the black robed men and soon left the village.
The act of them showing up and killing the Nascent Soul experts sent up by the four great sects of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom would mostly be a form of intimidation, even if they did not succeed like the Bishop wanted, they should have at least showed what would happen if someone dared to try and look into the plague.
"I should not be punished too badly… Right…?" Thinking this, the black robed man who failed to kill Elder Flame Beard felt a slight shiver down his spine as he remembered how ruthless the Bishop was…