It has been a whole one day since Bai Clan imposed a total lockdown in Dragon City. Of course, people didn't take it lightly and protested as many powerful clans and sects instigated the crowd to demand Bai Clan to give them good reasons about why one of the Forbidden Zone turned from a gray land to a black scorched land and what was the bright white bright light which shocked the whole Dragon City.
Protests were carried out throughout the Dragon City as people wanted to get the answers and one of the bigger protests was carrying out in front of the City Hall of the Central District, the main government building of the whole Dragon City.
City Hall has gone through various remodelling throughout the years, latest being only 20 years old which created the huge black building which people could see. It has 1000 rooms for different tasks and even included top notch luxurious cultivation rooms and residents for Bai Clan and people working for them to maintain law and order in Dragon City.
In front of the huge ancient gate of the modern City Hall stood a crowd of more than 5000 people who came to ask the questions.
Most of them were mortals who came here just to get something to eat for today with a few cultivators who "ignited" this spirit of liberty on demand of their masters.
If it has been occurred 10 years ago even the ever-smiling old governor would have thrown them into jail for this kind of protests. Since Starlight Corporation entered Dragon Realm many top clans and sects have been forced to stay passive as no one knows the number of cameras capturing their every action at every second as recent cameras were actually so small that they could avoid divine sense detection; many careless people even lost everything due to these cameras, while in past powerful cultivators would kill anyone they don't like and remove the traces even when they killed juniors of rival sects nowadays a single live stream of the killing is enough to force the whole sect to issue a public apology and punish the evil elders who just followed the old rules and customs for the glory of their sects, they never even imagined that in a single sitting of their cultivation the world would have changed this much.
That being said, most of the powers didn't bother to stop modern technologies as anyone who disrupted their production faced wrath of Heng Merchant Union, the partners of the Starlight Corporation of Dragon City.
"Tell us what Bai Clan is hiding!"
"We deserve to hear truth! We want Truth!"
"The times of Bai Clan oppression has to end. This is our city! We deserve to know what is happening in our city!"
"We want Truth!"
"Yeah! We want Truth!"
Thousands of men and women of different age groups wearing different styles of clothes were holding boards filled with protest slogans and chanted them with the desire to make the Bai Clan accountable for the sudden lockdown and not disclosing about anything what happened in the Dark Zone.
As they were chanting the slogans and shaming the very people who protects them the gate of the City Hall opened and a group of three people, two men and one woman, entered in the view of the protestors.
The young man was wearing snickers, a black t-shirt, and blue rugged jeans. His long black hair were tied to the waist this time. He had a soothing aura around him and was just too perfect to even exist.
The young woman was wearing official clothes for female employees of the city hall, a white shirt and black skirt and heels. Unlike young man the woman here was epitome of coldness, giving other illusion that they were facing an ancient glacier not a young woman with gorgeous beauty.
The old man was wearing a simple traditional immortal robe, the one colour robe, the type he always wears. He was simplest of them and was giving the vibes of a friendly uncle from the neighbourhood.
A few cultivators hidden in the crowd were elated to see three people coming there and signaled each other to rouse protesters even more but stopped the moment they saw the old men looking at them vicious eyes ready to kill if they speak another word.
Soon the group came in front of the crowd of thousands. As the cultivators in front laid their eyes on the young man who seems to be crafted by the heavens to perfection each of them even forgot the reasons why they were here.
The few in the backs felt this kind of silence was a terrible thing for their protest and started shouting planned lines.
"Don't be afraid my comrades! We are thousands and they are only a few, we have the majority! Don't be afraid!"
"Yes! Raise your voice with me! We want Truth!"
"We want Truth!"
"We will not cower in front of tyranny anymore!
"We want Truth"
"Ahem, the four esteemed protesters could you please come forward so that we can at least talk face to face. Maybe I can help you with your demand.
You know what, wait there at back, I am coming through."
Hearing this type of unique charming voice of a man for the first time they were bewildered as according to their master they would meet either an old cranky man or a cold witch, none of them said about meeting a godly young man.
The whole silent crowd stood far from them in an instant and paved the whole path for the young man to meet them.
The young man smiled a little to see this and went towards them. As he smiled a few brought their smart phones and started capturing his photos. Other twos wanted to stop this, but the young man waved his hand and smiled even more and looked at the crowd.
"I am flattered that you want to capture the photos, how about this, after I answer all the things why don't we hold a photo session?"
"No. We have other important things to do."
"Come on Alicia. What could be more important than serving the people by satisfying their needs."
"We need to solve other protests too."
"Really? We have other protests too?"
Young woman with blonde wavy hair rolled her light blue eyes to his question "As of now we have 475 similar protests happening in the dragon city and we also have to open the lockdown now. It will take a whole night to solve all this."
He shook his head and smiled apologetically to the crowd "I guess we will have to find another opportunity to know each other, what a shame all these protests are taking all our time."
The crown silently took the boards down and looked glum at this missed opportunity and started to look at the ones who told them to do all this.
Cultivators could only smile wryly as they never expected the whole crown to change its stance as soon as the young man appeared and spoke a few words, but they could not blame them as even they were getting milder due to his soothing aura.
One of the four in the back not able to hold any more went forward.
"This, young master, how do I call you?"
The young man was surprised a bit and tilted his head in confusion "You don't know me?"
"No."
"Really?"
"No. In fact, none of us know the Young Master."
At this young man looked curiously around the crowd to verify his words and was shocked that no one really knew him.
The secretory beside him came forward with an aura of indifference as if she was not able to take on more of this child's play.
"Listen closely. This man is the governor of the very land you are standing on, Bai Changming., the Young Master of Bai Clan, the Grandson of the Heavenly Emperor Bai Wei. So, show some damn respect that he himself came to hear your petty hollow demands.."
"Wow, you are even more direct to others."
"Got any problem with that Mr Governor?"
"Not at all, Ms Secretory. Just keep it bare minimum I don't need to hear parents saying that their children were not able to sleep after meeting with you."
Old man sighed "Young Master you were too late. We already have complaints of Alicia heavily scolding children of a few officials in City Hall. Some children were so scared to enter the nursery that we had to create another one in the living quarters near the City Hall."
"Really!? Wow, you outdid yourself Alicia."
"Ahem, could we please get the questions you want to ask. I guess you have something to ask from our governor."
The cultivator gulped down hard as he saw an illusionary death god staring at him from the shadows of the woman urging to speak something as soon as possible. In panic he looked around to check if others saw it, but was even more horrified as he was the only one able to see how scary this woman is.
"T-This...We want to ask the government why lockdown was imposed."
Bai Changming nodded and looked at him while making a gentle smiling "Yesterday, as most of you had seen, a big foreign energy clashed on the Dark Hole. The person responsible had ways to even call for Heavenly Tribulation. We decided to impose a lockdown to make sure that nothing serious happened and to find the culprit."
A fat man in suit also joined the conversation "Sir, please don't tell me that Bai Clan cannot even find a single culprit with such man force in so many hours. If yes, then why we are giving you our hard-earned money as taxes at all?"
"Yeah, sir, aren't you the Young Master of Bai Clan so why taking so much time, we all are really scared after imagining what kind of person would force the mighty Bai Clan to impose a total lockdown."
Bai Changming nodded and looked around the questioning gaze of everyone at him, smiling a bit internally on the fact that they are surely helping him to solve this charade as soon as possible by asking direct questions.
"Actually, you are not wrong. Bai Clan should not have faced such an issue, bit we are helpless as the person who did this seems to be an Explorer and you, as a cultivator, must know that they have best means to escape and not only we can capture them easily if they want to hide"
"Sir, even then, why imposed such a strict lockdown."
"To find the Explorer in underground areas we needed to do this. And only a few hours ago we have already captured him, so don't worry city will be normal from tomorrow."
"...That's all?"
"Yeah. I mean what else could it be. It is not like as if the person was even able to enter the Dark Zone, he just threw a large attack thinking a hole will be created or what not? You know the minds of these guys; they will get to any length to find some relics or discover some ancient areas."
Cultivator nodded a little with embarrassment that he would not be able to ask anything more as the whole crowd seems to agree with him and if he pose some more questions, it will be them who would appear suspicious.
"Very well. Since we got our answers, we will go back. I just hope that next time government could communicate as soon as possible to ease the troubles of common people like us."
Bai Changming nodded a bit and looked at the old man. "Uncle, please punish the Public Relationship department. See how much scared our precious people are, all this happened because they share the information when I specifically told them to do it. Was there even a need to only tell people after culprit was found.
...Don't worry about it. I promise to all of you people of Dragon City that this will not happen next time."
Old man coughed a little with embarrassment as it was Bai Changming himself who ordered the complete lockdown and stopped every passage of information from the City Hall. But what could he do? Tell the crowd? No, he just nodded and felt that the PR people were too poor to be caught in this fiasco made by their governor.
Everyone felt a sense of relief and started packing their things to go back.
Looking at this Bai Changming looked at the two people around him "Shall we also move back? We can not make Alicia late for her work, can we?"
Alicia rolled her eyes and started walking to the gate of the City Hall leaving the two lazy men behind.
Old man shook his head at this level of insubordination but decided to not say anything as this is the new normal since Bai Changming gave a free pass to Alicia allowing her to do what she likes in front of him. He looked at Bai Changming "Changming, you should also stay with us tonight."
"Of course, that goes without saving. Let's solve this and let the people enjoy their usual free Dragon City as soon as possible."
While saying this Bai Changming flashed his charming smile to people and used his soothing aura to maximum making them believe everything will be better since he is here.
At the Bai Changming who went to chase Alicia old man, the previous governor of the Dragon City Bai Xiang who also happens to be the first Vice-Governor in the history of city, muttered with a tired voice "Our Young Master is becoming more and more mysterious every day, I don't know whether it is a good thing or not..."
================================================================
A Hidden Cave, Demon Realm, Dao Universe.
"Master should we really disturb the Great God for this?"
In a nameless cave covered with glowing crimson ancient diabolic symbols a young man dressed in a white robe with twin black dragons at the back was knelt in front of a man sitting on a stone chair. The young man had short black hair and was wearing strange laughing devil mask, but it was nowhere as eerie as compared to the man wearing large black robe.
Robe was so large and dark that only a pair of crimson eyes could be seen. The red eyes were indifferent to everyone who sees it, but the young man and a few others knows that they contain an infinite madness which is just waiting for a chance to engulf the entire Universe in chaos and bloodshed.
The crimson eyes stared at the young man, the best follower he picked in years. The mascot of the cult which showed that even the Young Lords of the Universe follow the words of the Great God just like others.
"You believe that this is a small issue?"
Hearing the cold indifferent voice devoid of any human sentient Young Man felt the familiar chills which ravage his body and mind every single time he meat his Master. He knelt even more respectfully and put his head on ground as a show of complete submission, an act which is not at all expected from the heaven's chosen like him.
"Tell me why you think that this is a small issue?"
While bowing down to ground he spoke "Master we already searched every nook and cranny of Dragon City. It is a relatively new city with almost no threat to us. I just believe that a single white light should not make us go to our Great God. Many elders too don't think that this will paint a good image to our recruits, we will appear as weak if we call our Great God just because of a big white light."
"You believe that it was just a white light?"
"Yes, we all believe that."
"So naive."
Man didn't say anything more and stood up.
The ground beneath them vanished and became transparent revealing a grotesque mass of black and crimson thing which squirmed hideously every second. It looked so bad that any human, irrespective of their realm, who looked at it went insane just by looking it, only a few ones who were blessed by Great God could endure the 'blessings' of this abomination which should not have even existed in any Universe and timeline.
The young man felt his stomach gotten weak at this and used his Immortal Qi to control himself from vomiting but the man in black glued his crimson eyes to the abomination which waved a few tentacles as if saying hello to them like an innocent child who is not aware of its own diabolic image.
"Last week one of the part of our senior was taken near an Abyss Gate. The fool who let that happen has been forgiven by senior and has become an eternal part of the great senior of our cult. I felt vexed at this, don't you believe that such a fate should be reserved only for those who deserve it?"
Young Man looked at the tentacles and when he thought what the man in black said he was not able to hold and vomited on the floor much to his embarrassment.
"Tch. Weak."
"...Forgive me, Master for this kind of d-"
"Don't speak more, clean first. Don't let our pure senior look at the filth of a maggot like you."
Young man brought out a cloth and wiped it just like mortal servants clean his family's house. Looking at the young man cleaning just like an experienced servant the man didn't say anything else and continued.
"After a week, we traced man took the man to Dragon City. We were going to retrieve it but after a few hours the whole Dragon City went into lockdown."
"...I didn't know about this Master."
"The stealing of a black tentacle and the white light which made Bai Clan to impose a total lockdown. Do you think that they are just a coincidence that they appeared simultaneously?"
"This..."
"Forget it. You are too young and illiterate to understand the laws of casuality."
Man in black robes knelt and drew a crimson knife covered by symbols just like the ones painted on the walls. He made a small cut to drop 5 drops of his blood which passed through the glass and fell into the abomination squirming below them.
It stopped moving after consuming the blood drops and a red mist released from it which filled the entire room.
The man knelt and kowtowed to the mist with absolute reverence creating an ever-burning obsession to worship the person behind the mist in his eyes, igniting an emotion he long ago reserved only for his Lord.
Soon the mist collected to the center and became a face with only two black eyes which sees the whole Universe as an ant it could kill with its gaze at any given anytime.
It looked at the man and young boy giving an immense pressure to both, reminding them about the power of their Great God who could kill them with just an image from a fog.
"My Lord. I believe that the person you are looking for has come to our humble Universe."
Huge face didn't say anything as it has heard this sentence so many times that it has gotten completely tired from it. But considering that this minion is among the best ones it has it decided to give it a benefit of doubt.
"Why do you say so?"
Hearing the unisex sound which belonged to neither of the two main genders both felt themselves soothing, relaxing, and free from the pressure they were facing.
Collecting himself the man in black stood up and said while bowing, not even daring to look at the face.
"Lord, please look into my memories and witness yourself why your slave thinks so."
Then the black eyes flashed with a white spark which vanished instantly as it needed a second to read the complete memories of lower beings who have not even lived a 100 Million Years.
But unlike most of the time where he would just process the memories in just a second it spend a whole minute to confirm what he saw just now. After that it looked at the man "Is the image stone reliable? Are you sure it is not fake?"
"No Lord. If you want, I could call for the person who captured it, he is a reputable member of Assassin Guild we hired to look out for anything strange in the Dragon City."
"No need."
"My Lord. Please give us orders."
"Hmm. I am not completely sure what it is. But it will be better to investigate it and kill the person who was responsible for this heavenly tribulation. Don't you have those idiots in Dao Realm?"
"The Church of Harmony my lord?
"Call them and give them have anything they want. Remove their restrictions, in fact, allow them to just destroy the Dao Realm if they really can do it. Just make sure to kill the person who was under that bolt."
Young man gulped with fear and respect while listening to the Great God calling for the deaths of trillions of beings in such a casual way. But the man in black was anything but excited as if he was waiting for this.
Looking at the man in black and peering through his camouflage art it knew that this man is also a maniac like others, the best maniacs who serve it mindlessly.
"I don't care what you do with Dao Realm, kill all of them if you want, just make sure to kill that person. I will not hold you accountable for what you do there from today.
But, be ready to live a life of eternal hell if you cannot even kill a single ant."
Man in black robe for the first time looked at the huge face, looking at the black eyes with his crimson eyes filled with an excitement of a child who has gotten its desired toy after many requests he reaffirmed from his opinion in the mind of the huge face, that this man is a complete maniac.
"Don't worry my lord. I will make sure that the person you want dead will be met with the most horrific death in the history of Dao Universe. Even if it hides to the depth of the abyss, I will make sure to kill it and bring the head to you as proof of my undying loyalty to you."
Nodding a bit, the huge face vanished and soon the red mist went back into the abomination which franticly waved its horrible tentacles as if it was protesting to the man in black for disturbing it.
But its protest was not even considered as the whole ground went back to stone as the man in back went towards his huge stone chair. He sat there and looked at the young man still kneeling on the ground.
"Go to Dao Realm and make sure that Church is given what they need. Don't stop them, let them do anything they want, those kids have been waiting for this for a while now. And after that go to Abyss Gate 1 and try to make that idiot join us."
"As you wish Master."
The young man vanished as he moved towards the direction of Dao Realm with his Mythic grade movement technique.
The man in black robe remained seated there and closed his eyes while smiling a little as he imagined the soul wrenching cries of trillions of souls in Dao Realm. The image of cries filled with utter despair and fear of imminent death soothed him so much that he drifted into his first sleep in a very long time.