As the ambush against Elder Flame Beard had finished, the other Nascent Soul Realm experts on their way to their own village to investigate each got informed about what had happened.
This of course included Xuan Hao himself as the Sect Master contacted him about it and called for him to return back to the sect. After all, even if the Heavenly Sky Kingdom could order them to send someone out at the border area to investigate, they could not force them to send someone directly into an enemy ambush…
"I see… Guess I will just return then or is there something else you would want for me to check up on now that I'm already outside?" Talking to the communication talisman in his hand, Xuan Hao stood on top of his sword floating a few hundred meters above the ground as he patiently waited for a response.
"Hm… There is not really much for us to do at the moment other than wait for things to settle down between the Azure Sky Kingdom and the Heavenly Sky Kingdom… The only thing that could help would be something that could deal with the plague, so just come back to the sect for now, the notebook you mentioned earlier on might have some clues to this in it!" Thinking about it for quite a while, Sect Master Feng Chen remembered the earlier conversation they had had about what Xuan Hao had found in the city of Kubera.
"Fine, I will just start heading back then…" Feeling both happy and a bit disappointed at the prospect of returning to the sect already, Xuan Hao wished to at least have a chance to fight someone after his breakthrough to the sixth stage of the Nascent Soul Realm… At the moment, he had no clue about how strong or weak he was as he never had an opportunity to fight with someone yet.
…
The situation of Elder Flame Beard getting ambushed while investigating the plague and losing his physical body in the process soon started spreading across the Heavenly Sky Kingdom as the panic and fear of normal citizen reached an all-time high.
The only part of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom that was calm at the moment was the now demonic black rose sect, as the panic spread through the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, the Black Rose Sect's territory had calmed down completely and seemed to have shut off to the outside world as they ignored what was happening outside.
"Sect Master, we have still not managed to find the Devil Immortal Jade yet… From what we manged to find out, it should most likely have landed in the hands of one of the disciples who ran away that day called Chu Yang… But from what we heard, the people tasked with catching him were all killed…" Coming in front of a large and majestic throne in the centre of the Black Rose Sect, a slightly skinny elder timidly reported as he waited for the man sitting on top of the throne to respond.
"Hmph! Then do you perhaps have any idea where he escaped to…?" Snorting coldly upon hearing what the skinny elder said, the man sitting on top of the throne asked in a threatening tone.
"N-no, b-but we did manage to locate the area where he should have escaped and should be able to locate him soon!" Shaking more with every word he said, the skinny elder informed the Sect Master.
"I see… Go out and find him then and bring the Devil Immortal Jade back to me! Now leave! If you return empty handed…" Narrowing his eyes at the last bit, a terrifying pressure suddenly enveloped the skinny elder, causing him to turn even more pale than he already was as he desperately nodded his head.
"O-of course, I-I will be sure to return with the Devil Immortal Jade and the traitor!" Saying this, the skinny elder did not dare to stay any longer as he quickly made his way out of the giant hall that the meeting had taken place in.
"H-how did it go…?" As the skinny elder finally made his way outside, a small group of elders anxiously waited for him as they quickly ran over and asked him.
The Devil Immortal Jade was way too important for the Black Rose Sect at the moment and the fact that it was left unattended by someone was already a failure and the person in question had already been killed personally by the Sect Master himself!
It had to be known that the person in question was a Core Elder who had already reached the Nascent Soul Realm!
Even losing a single one would be a tremendous blow to the Black Rose Sect, yet the Sect Master had killed him out of pure rage, scaring the rest of the upper echelons in the process.
"The Sect Master ordered me to go and find the Devil Immortal jade and the traitor… And if I can't find them…" The skinny elder did not need to say anymore as the others understood clearly what would happen if he failed.
"So… Did you find out anything about where he might have escaped to…?" One of the surrounding elders curiously stepped forward and asked.
"I have no idea, I just came up with it to buy myself some more time…" Saying this, the skinny elder let out a heavy sigh as he felt that his future was quite bleak.
"…" The other elders did not say anything either as they all just stood quietly staring at each other for a moment, if they had known things would turn out like this, they would have never agreed with the Sect Master to become a demonic sect…
They might be stronger than their past selves, but the freedom they had in the past had long since disappeared as they could only cling onto the hope that the Devil Immortal Jade brought to them…
As long as that thing succeeded, they would be able to live more peacefully without fearing a sect, kingdom or empire suddenly sending someone to exterminate them…
All the elders knew very well how hated the demonic sects and cultivators were… But in the end, their greed for power had led them down a path they couldn't return from any longer…