Before he could even think of a solution, Xiao Tianji found himself on his knees on the floor in front of the star-haired youth, who was looking at him curiously. But, even though the situation was critical, Xiao Tianji couldn't help but stare at the group of 16 youths, two wolves, and one spirit around him in complete stupefaction.
He truly couldn't understand how, in the middle of all that hell, that group could appear unscathed, without visible wounds, fresh as daisies, and with complete, elegant, and functional gear.
"Well, you are Xiao Tianji, aren't you?"
As he was lost in bitter thoughts, Xiao Tianji suddenly heard the calm voice of the starry-haired youth, which made him look him in the eyes with a conflicted expression. He could still remember how, before entering the ruins, he had argued with that youth and threatened him without revealing his name.
But as a twist of fate, he, the proud Revealed-level, was now kneeling before him as nothing more than a prisoner, while the humble Ascended-level looked down at him with a calm smile.
"Answer."
At that moment, Xiao Tianji felt an icy edge against his throat, which made him lift his gaze. There he found a beautiful young woman with blue eyes and black hair dressed in elegant, feminine full plate armor, holding a katana and looking at him with cold eyes as she ordered in a dry voice.
"Yes, it's me." Knowing he had no chance to resist, Xiao Tianji let out a heavy sigh and spoke in a calm voice while analyzing the star-haired youth.
The youth was wearing an elegant black suit with a vest, along with two dark machetes on the left side of his hip. Meanwhile, above him floated what seemed to be an ancient gas lamp, stable in the air, and by his sides, a huge crystal core and a red jade bottle could be seen floating inside prismatic crystalline barriers.
"Perfect. Then I need you to tell us a bit of your story inside these ruins, but in particular, I need you to explain how you ended up here. Don't worry, if your information satisfies us, we might take you with us when we leave this place."
Erik asked while looking the youth from the Lotus Union up and down. Xiao Tianji looked at the ceiling as different emotions passed through his eyes, but after a moment, he clenched his teeth, filled with hatred and helplessness, and began to speak.
"… After passing through the entrance, I appeared a few meters from a garden entrance and was immediately attacked by at least 20 Revealed-level individuals dressed entirely in black. But thanks to the treasures I had, I was easily able to face them and managed to kill almost all of them before some strange golden chains appeared and rendered almost all my artifacts useless.
"Seizing the momentum, I managed to catch the ones still alive by surprise and kill them all, but since I didn't know if those men had reinforcements, I quickly took their weapons and storage bags and entered the garden. In the garden, I easily managed to finish off some beasts and gather food, and soon even ended up meeting other members of my Xiao family and the Lotus Union.
"From there, we began exploring the garden, searching for opportunities, soon gathering a group of almost 40 people, among whom were individuals from all factions. But no matter how much we searched, we only managed to find some mediocre herbs, no treasures, so we expanded the search while trying to locate and secure an exit."
As he spoke, Xiao Tianji furrowed his brow, and his words began to be tinged with pain, fear, and deep hatred. At that point, he looked directly into Erik's green eyes and continued with clenched teeth.
"But that was our first major mistake. At the first exit we discovered, we encountered an Illuminated-level who decimated a large part of our group, forcing us to flee in different directions. But it wasn't enough; that son of a bitch managed to capture most and killed the rest, and only I and six other people managed to escape in the chaos… Damned Stellar Empire, if I get out of here alive, I swear I will exterminate them all and bathe in their blood!"
Xiao Tianji added, filled with infinite hatred, releasing murderous intent full of madness, which led Erik to ask, surprised.
"The Illuminated-level was from the Stellar Empire? How do you know?"
"Because I managed to destroy the mask he wore during the fight and saw his damned eyes! Those damned eyes shone like your damn hair!"
Xiao Tianji shouted, filled with madness, while looking at Erik with hatred. But his words caused a stir among Erik and the others, who looked at each other in disbelief. Especially Erik, after all, he himself had dismissed the possibility of the Stellar Empire being involved, and now it turned out not only were they involved, they were the ones behind the hunters.
"How dare they do this…?" Erik couldn't help but murmur in disbelief. At that moment, Xiao Tianji screamed while looking at Erik with bloodshot eyes.
"You're with them, aren't you?! That's why you're all so fine! They set a trap for us! You son of a bitch!! You'll pay for this, I swear!! Even if I die here, you'll never have a day of pe--"
But suddenly, Xiao Tianji's words were cut short when the tip of Zoe's katana entered his mouth, almost touching his throat. Feeling the cold metal and Zoe's undisguised murderous intent, Xiao Tianji immediately fell silent, and a hint of rationality seemed to return to him. He then looked solemnly into Erik's calm green eyes, who seemed to have fallen into deep thought.
"Why do you think the Stellar Empire did all this?" Ignoring the madman, Ethan looked at his companions and asked in a serious tone. Christine brought her hand to her chin and commented while deep in thought.
"It's truly impossible to know. An empire in name only shouldn't have the capability nor the guts to ally with a Virelian, much less set a trap like this…"
"Maybe they're desperate…" At that moment, Tomás commented in a thoughtful tone, with a hand on his chin.
"What do you mean?"
Zoe turned to look at the young man and asked, somewhat curious, as she really didn't know much about what was happening outside the Order. Tomás looked back at Zoe and explained seriously.
"On my travels with the Bikereas, I heard comments that the Stellar Empire was in a difficult situation. Rumors spread that their greatest combat force, a Peak Arcane-level, was on the verge of death, and suddenly the prices of many of their exports went up, especially Eldora Wood. Also, they started searching for alchemists and doctors everywhere, which basically confirmed it.
"Furthermore, many long-time suppliers and clients of businesses parallel to Eldora Wood stopped working with them, and many others began pressuring them to reveal the secret of its production. I also heard that even our Arcane Order was rubbing salt in the wound; many private companies sent armored ships to pick up large numbers of migrants to open a new development zone.
"Basically, they are one bad day away from collapsing and being torn apart by their own allies seeking the secrets of Eldora Wood. Something they had managed to keep until now by relying on the formations left by their Master-level ancestor on the main planet and their Peak Arcane-level, a combination that barely allowed them to defend against a Master-level, and their generous offerings to House Solaris."
Hearing Tomás, everyone present began to reflect. At that moment, Elara shook her head and commented, confused.
"They might be desperate, but not enough to do something like this; they're literally committing suicide, and it's not like they're facing total extermination. In the worst-case scenario, if their Peak Arcane-level died, by handing over the secrets of Eldora Wood to House Solaris, they could still obtain protection for a good while, and the others would lose interest in them. They shouldn't get involved in something like this… There must be something more."
"A person accustomed to wealth can do crazy things to avoid losing it. Moreover, the level of power and influence the Peak Arcane-level has over the empire is unknown. Perhaps, being on the verge of death, he decided to risk it all and use heretical arts to survive." Chen commented, equally thoughtful, but Zoe shook her head and said.
"Although that's possible, they still wouldn't need to get involved in this madness. In the past, many rulers performed sacrifices of their own population and family to try to advance or extend their lives. Therefore, even if the Peak Arcane-level attempted heretical arts, he would first use his own people; it's less risky than provoking the Legendary-levels who could wipe them out with a mere breath."
"And what if he already tried and it wasn't enough? It's common for heretical cultists to seek geniuses for their sacrifices; maybe after trying and failing, he decided to get into this to obtain the blood of geniuses from across the galaxy." Christine commented seriously, which made the others reflect, not very convinced. But at that moment, Erik spoke seriously while looking at Xiao Tianji.
"It's pointless to try to infer their motivations in this moment; we haven't even seen that Illuminated-level for ourselves, and even if he really is from the Stellar Empire, that doesn't change anything right now. With or without starry eyes, he's still an Illuminated-level we must be careful of. Now it's more important to use our time and gather more information."
"That's true."
Elara nodded seriously. At that moment, Erik looked at Zoe and nodded to her, so the beautiful young woman pulled her katana out of the now calmer Xiao Tianji's mouth. As the disheveled young man stared at him, Erik asked seriously.
"Let's continue where we left off. You said you managed to escape. What happened after that? How did you get to this place?"
"…" Xiao Tianji stared at Erik with deep eyes, but seeing Tomás bring his hand to the sword at his waist, he began to speak.
"After that, we got as far away as possible from that exit and hid in a cave to try to recover. Then we started moving actively to avoid being found while hunting. But suddenly, a roar resonated, and the world turned upside down as pillars of light rose to the sky. Before we knew it, we ended up in a temple connecting to this cave, surrounded by demonic cultivators along with more youths from other factions.
"There, one of the demonic cultivators revealed Illuminated-level power and began a massacre, which I only survived because I hid in the chaos and used the only treasure the chains didn't manage to destroy. A treasure my father found in some ruins; it basically allows hiding any trace of one's presence, making it easy to play dead, and they brought me here with the other corpses."
"Are you saying there's an Illuminated-level demonic cultivator outside?" Tomás asked gravely, to which Xiao Tianji nodded solemnly.
"Yes, behind the stone covering the entrance, there's a long ascending tunnel that leads to a huge temple where there are at least 50 Revealed-level cultivators and one Illuminated-level. Furthermore, although I didn't dare look much, I could see a Virelian also of Illuminated level, who was the one who engraved the runes on the bodies and managed the whole ritual.
"But for some reason, the demonic cultivators don't dare enter here. Also, a while ago, the Virelian suddenly activated that portal and crossed through. But because of the two individuals dressed in black at the entrance, I didn't dare move until just recently when they suddenly fell unconscious.
"Then I tried to find an exit, taking advantage of the situation, but I found nothing. And when I saw the portal activate again, I hid, thinking he had returned. When I saw the Golems and then you all, I was so surprised I ended up losing control of my mana, and my artifact failed to hide me…"
"Could it be they haven't detected us because of the formation you mentioned?" Erik turned to look at Ethan and Chen and asked seriously. Chen quickly responded with seriousness.
"Almost certainly. If the Virelian's goal was to move without raising suspicion, he would definitely include means to hide what happens here from the Illuminated-level outside."
"I see…" Erik nodded, then looked at Xiao Tianji and asked seriously.
"Do you know of any means of communication they have, or does someone come to check, or anything like that?"
Xiao Tianji shook his head, then explained seriously while staring intently at Erik.
"There might be one, but I'm not sure. When delivering the corpses, the Revealed-levels left us at the entrance and performed some hand signals before leaving. Since then, I haven't seen them again. It was the two dressed in black who opened the cave, brought us in, and here the Virelian chose a few bodies to hang and replace the ones that were there before."
"I see…"
(How do we take advantage of this? Do we set a trap for the Illuminated-level or go back through the portal and keep trying to activate the exit…?)
Hearing Xiao Tianji, Erik couldn't help but murmur to himself while turning to look at the door with deep eyes. But at that instant, Erik couldn't help but open his eyes in disbelief and turn to look at the hanging corpses while murmuring.
"You've got to be kidding me… Are they zombies or what?"
"Zombies?" Hearing Erik, Tomás turned and asked, confused. To this, Erik nodded and commented in a serious voice while staring intently at the hanging corpses.
"They are 'reviving.'"
***
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