"Alright, we're moving out!"

Dara ordered as the entire troop began to march out of the open gates;

​​

"Godspeed, Leader!"

"May mother nature guide you, Tribe Leader!"

The human tribesmen who were guarding the gates pumped the morale of the troop as they marched out of the tribe straight into the jungle…

The moment the gate of the tribe slammed shut, Dara's group knew they were on their own as their level of caution rose to its peak;

"Alright First Elder, where are we heading to?" Dara asked as he laid the map before the First Obun Elder as they marched along;

"Here…" The First Elder pointed to a spot deep into the recess of the jungle;

"There unh?"

"That place is so far away from civilization, it would make the perfect spot to hide something that sinister indeed…" Dara muttered as they marched on…

Meanwhile…

Leagues away from their current location…

Right at the center Land of Light…

This land mass could only be describes as 'As far as the normal eyes could see', and right in the center of this landscape was a massive residence which covered at least 100 acres of land…

This 100 acre land was actually in the middle of a massive lake, and within these land were numerous residences in the form of over 40 different houses…

Each of these house were massive on their own and were by all standards worthy of being called mansions, except that these mansions themselves were joined together or separated by a fence each…

The mansions were built with one facing the other from the left to the right and vice versa…

On the left was another mansion even grander and bigger than the rest of the 20 some mansions on its wing and it was the only mansion which was detached from the rest on its wing, standing alone with a fence of its own and a gate…

Just atop this gate was a plaque that read; 'Left Grand Elder'…

On the right side was an exact replica of this left wing, and it also had a separate mansion which had a plaque that read; 'Right Grand Elder'…

These gated mansions were position in a way that they were situated at the deepest end of this entire 100 acre landscape, and both of these gated mansions were facing a castle right in between them, like a person trying to separate a fight between two people by standing in between them…

This castle took up all the gigantic space between the residence of the Left and Right Grand Elders of this massive landscape;

They all had roofs made out of clay but dried into thin slabs of stones, with the buildings themselves being white in color, bringing out the grandeur and intent of a menacingly wealthy tribe…

This castle was two stories high, and because of its unique size of this castle which looked like two mansions stacked atop one another…

Due to this structural uniqueness, the top mansion of this castle not only overlooks the entire 100 acres of land effortlessly, but it also gives a good view of the entire land owned by the tribe…

Moving from this castle towards the normal gateless mansions, there was a massive garden separating the first ten mansions on both sides, as well as a massive library that radiated a very unique feel of ancientness separating the eleventh to the fifteenth mansions from one another…

Then finally, there was a massive academy which [though was small with respect to its name] was reserved for the best of the best talents in the entire landscape which was as vast as a normal eye could see…

A massive red steel gate closed this entire 100 acres of land, and it also had a grand and massive plaque hung over it that said; 'Min Tribe'…

Yeah, the name of the tribe which rules the Kingdom of Shangri La is the Min Tribe, and this is where they all resided, whilst the rest of the tribe in the Kingdom of Light resides at the shore of the Lake itself…

The family of the Tribe Leader or the King of Shangri La, and that of the two Grand Elders of the Min Tribe and their families and some other high ranked officials and elders of the Min Tribe all resided here…

The top mansion of the castle belonged to Min Tian; the current King of Shangri La, his wife and three children; and it also contains a training area, cultivation spot, library and a Vault…

The ground mansion on the other hand contained a Throne Hall where important meetings are being held, and the other necessities in every home, but today however, he was in his cultivation spot meditating when a calm and serene elderly voice drifted past the curtain;

"Your highness, the Left Grand Elder is here and would like to have a word with you…"

"Should I show him to the Throne Hall or tell him you are in seclusion?"

The old lady who seemed to be the king's personal servant spoke in a tone that wasn't interruptive or disturbing, but still audible enough, and that would signify the reason why she held such an important position in the entire kingdom…

"It's alright Fu, I will be down in a minute…"

A middle aged voice floated out of the meditation area, and the figure of the elderly lady retreated from the room;

"His highness will be with you shortly…" Maid Fu told a middle aged man when she got to the Throne Hall before retreating altogether;

"Left, why have you summoned me?"

The King's voice floated into the Hall as the middle aged man standing in front of the throne held his bow till King Min Tian sat on his throne;

"His highness, I am here because I just received news of a new development from one of our Qi Stone Farms…"

"Eh? What happened!?" King Tian abruptly leaned forward on his throne as he stared at the Left Grand Elder;

"Nothing has happened with the stones, it is the Obuns that is the source of this problem, your highness…"

King Tian relaxed back into his seat a bit but was still having an expression of concern etched all over his face;

"What happened to the Obuns?"

"Are they rebelling?"

"That shouldn't be possible right?" He fired several back to back questions at the left Grand Elder;

"No your highness, they didn't rebel…"

"Then what is it!?" The King was coming on so strong it was bordering on aggressive;

"Greetings your highness, we simply sent a troop of Obuns to go fetch some more humans from the Grey or Dark Lands, and up until this moment, we have only accounted for only a hundred of their 252 man strong troop…"

Another figure walked into the Throne Hall;

It was a actually a pretty young man who was too pretty to still be classified as a man, especially when one factors in his feminine tendencies;

'Tch, hateful fellow…' The Left Grand Elder's face darkened as he glared at this new figure;

"Elder Yun, aren't you supposed to still be in the Dark Lands?"

King Tian looked to the fair, tall and slender young man, who looks to be about 35 years from his appearance at least;

"Yes, your highness, but I decided to come in person because I want to highlight the severity of the problem to you…"

"Alright, so you are here, and I am listening…"

King Tian was still disappointed but this feminine Elder Yun in front of him was one of the pillars behind his rise to royalty and the reason why he has still kept his place till date...

But whilst he might be unreliable sometimes, with some weird fetishes, he was still one of the top ten most important figure in his Kingdom, thus, no matter the situation, King Tian has to entertain whatever he had to say;

"Your highness, about four months ago, one of my Obun scouts discovered a new tribe which had set roots within Dark Lands, and as a potential Qi Stone source, I dispatched about 50 Obuns station themselves a fair distance away from the village and report with me whenever there was any new development…"

"Then about two weeks later, word got to me that this tribe were actually going out of their village rescuing stranded people within the Dark Lands, thereby increasing their numbers and power, and in a bid to limit their power so that our Farms don't get stumbled upon and invaded, I ordered these Obuns to capture anyone who might be approaching the village in a bid to seek asylum…"

"But the after another two weeks, I received no report from the Obun I put in charge of this dispatch who was supposed to report to me every two weeks…"

"Thus, just to be safe, I sent out an entire Obun troop to go investigate what was going on, and if found bring the 50 Obun spies back to the farm…" Elder Yun continued;

"The troop I sent consisted of 250 Obuns as well as two Obun Elders, and I also gave them a two week time limit for the mission, but after the two weeks elapsed, the entire troop and the spies I sent beforehand never returned…"

King Tian himself frowned after hearing that 300 Obuns and 2 Obun Elders have gone missing in a single month without any trace whatsoever;

"Why didn't you send a messenger to the palace the moment that happened?" King Tian questioned;

"Your Highness, I felt there were more important matters for you to attend to, and moreover, I never thought anything would happen to a troop that was 300 Obun and 2 Elders strong, thus, I wanted to wait till I had definitive cause and evidences to worry you, before bringing the matter before you…"

King Tian nodded seemingly accepting Elder Yun's reasons before beckoning him to continue with his explanations;

"After another two weeks of not seeing any one of these Obuns, I thought that perhaps they were searching for my spies…"

"When it clocked two months of not hearing from these Obuns, I took three Obun troops myself and marched over to investigate the situation, and I found traces of the 50 Obun Spies being slaughtered within the Jungle of the Dark Lands…"

"Eh?" King Tian was stunned by the news;

"There is actually someone or people out there who could slaughter 50 Obuns?" He blurted unbelievably;

"Not only that your highness… I also moved over to the village my spies had told me about, and there I found about 100 of the troops I sent to look for my spies dead along with the tribesmen of this village…"

King Tian was already fuming as his hands curled into a fist;

Bang!

The table in front of King Tian was blasted into smithereens as he growled;

"Left! Yun! Are you telling me 150 Obuns are dead, and another 100 including 2 Elders are missing and I am just hearing about it four months after it all began!?"

King Tians robes and hair began to flutter without wind as he began to leak a profound aura of some sort;

"Unh?"

"7 Star Qi Sea Stage!?"

Elder Yun and The Left Grand Elder were stunned by this revelation, because the last time they were here, King Tian was only on the verge of breaking into the 6 Star Qi Sea Stage, and that was four months ago…