Inside the palace.
"The Spirit Hunter Guild has noticed us. Those psionics on the beach are all their people."
Seated side by side on the throne were three men. The one in the lead was gaunt, his face extremely pale, and he let out a few coughs intermittently, appearing to be in poor health. To his left sat a man of small stature, like a dwarf, with a somewhat sinister appearance. Finally, there was the man who had just spoken, broad-shouldered and burly, looking like the most normal of the three.
"Even Feng Wei couldn't escape."
The dwarf squinted his small eyes and said in a voice like a duck's quack.
"Those Spirit Hunter agents are not simple. The leader should be that man named Duan Chen. He's been quite the talk of the town recently… cough cough…"
"Li Yan, are you sure? He's been talked about, but the Jun Wuchen incident might just have been him getting lucky. In terms of strength, I'm more concerned about Du Qingyi from Ice City, as she's the only one among these people whose name I know."
The burly man let out a couple of cold laughs.
"Then let's make a bet. A bet on… cough cough… whether you die by Duan Chen's hand or Du Qingyi's."
Li Yan chuckled sinisterly twice. The dwarf in the middle, however, had been observing the confrontation between the two from the sidelines, not participating in their dispute.
"Heh heh… When I return to the palace with their heads, I hope you can still be so calm and composed."
The man stood up, his massive frame capable of swallowing the dwarf and Li Yan whole.
He cast a cold glance at Li Yan and left the palace.
After he was gone, the dwarf chuckled and said, "That guy, simple-minded and strong, won't actually try to confront Duan Chen, will he?"
Li Yan also sneered, "Doing so is a bit immoral, but there's no other way. After all, no one in Duan Chen's team is easy to deal with. Neither you nor I want to risk our lives for this. Since that's the case, let Wu Shan go to his death. Only then will they notice us and send stronger heretics."
The dwarf nodded with satisfaction.
"Indeed, a good plan."
…
"No heretics came ashore again today."
In the early morning, Duan Chen, having woken up early, left the seafood restaurant and headed to the beach. Under the shade of a parasol, he leisurely sipped juice. This juice, specially made by Melbourne, was indistinguishable from ordinary orange juice and tasted exactly the same.
"It seems the heretics already know. Sending more lackeys here means they won't return. They're probably thinking about how to deal with us now," Du Qingyi said, glancing disdainfully at the juice in his hand.
"Sigh…"
Duan Chen sighed and stood up. In the sky above the barrier, black and red intertwined, with dark red energy surging. It looked no different from before, but Duan Chen saw a blood-red full moon slowly forming in the sky above the barrier.
He frowned, vaguely feeling that something was not quite right.
Can this endless waiting really solve anything?
Duan Chen found Wu Suowei.
"How much do you know about the feast thirty years ago?"
Wu Suowei blinked in surprise.
Duan Chen smiled, "Although you can't act, providing some information shouldn't be a problem, right?"
He nodded. "Of course, it's no problem. Ask away."
Duan Chen sat beside him, his gaze becoming more solemn. "Where was the feast thirty years ago held?"
"The capital, the outskirts."
"When the barrier was erected back then, were there any Spirit Hunter agents inside?"
Wu Suowei lowered his head and thought for a moment, then replied, "That time, I was not inside the barrier. I was observing from the outside. From what I heard others say, there were, but after the barrier disappeared, those Spirit Hunter agents also vanished."
"Death?"
"No, not death, they disappeared. The kind where they were neither seen alive nor found dead."
Duan Chen felt increasingly that something was wrong, as if something or someone was secretly controlling things from the shadows.
He nodded and remained silent.
"Did you discover anything?"
He brought Wu Suowei to the edge of the beach and looked up at the faintly discernible red full moon hanging high in the sky.
"That's…"
Wu Suowei squinted his eyes.
"I have a bad feeling. It seems… we shouldn't just be waiting passively here, but should actively do something to… survive?"
Duan Chen chose his words carefully, uttering a few phrases that puzzled Wu Suowei.
"I don't understand what you mean."
Duan Chen shook his head. As it stood, no one except him seemed to have noticed that something was amiss.
The feast was by no means as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Judging from the attitudes of those few heretics before, they were extremely eager for the feast. However, from what Yan Qiuren and Wu Suowei had said, Duan Chen learned that after the feast, these heretics would not disappear, nor would they return to their "homeland." Instead, they would flood into the cities en masse and finally be eliminated by the Spirit Hunter agents.
If they were to be eliminated, why would they be so eager?
Could it be…
Duan Chen vaguely thought of a possibility, but he dared not be certain. He could only temporarily keep this doubt in his heart.
If that were indeed the case, then before long, all the Spirit Hunter Guilds, and even all the cities, would face a great catastrophe.
"Is the city where the feast is held different every time?"
Wu Suowei nodded. "The first time was in Moon City, about fifty or sixty years ago. The second time was in the capital. The third time, which is this one, is in Su City."
Duan Chen felt a chill crawl up his spine.
Wu Suowei's words seemed to confirm the terrifying yet unlikely idea that had formed in his mind.
However, Duan Chen couldn't say it now. Even with his influence within the team, no one would likely believe his speculation; they would just consider it a wild fantasy.
But what if it were true…
"What are you thinking about?"
"No, nothing."
Duan Chen needed to verify his guess. If it were true, he would take immediate action without any hesitation.
Even if he were alone.
"Duan Chen!"
"Who is Duan Chen? Get out here!"
Duan Chen was startled. He looked into the distance and saw a burly man in a tank top and shorts gradually approaching, shouting Duan Chen's name with fierce eyes.
Others were also drawn by the shouting and looked at the approaching figure in the distance.
"Who is Duan Chen?"
The man stopped a few meters away from them, his dark eyes sweeping across the group.
"I am."
Duan Chen stepped forward. He was already not short, but the man was even taller than him, a full head taller, and broad-shouldered. His shadow cast over Duan Chen.
Duan Chen's expression remained unchanged.
He needed this man to verify his guess.