The guards were appalled by the story that Shirong had said, but they didn't know whether to believe it or not. If it was really a beast as strong as he had said, it was even they should have died. Even a nascent soul realm cultivator had died back then for heaven's sake!

But Shirong's next sentence convinced them.

"I used a peak grade teleportation talisman to move us to the edge of the zone," Shirong stated and then immediately withdrew what looked like a triangular plate that was cracked from the center.

As soon as the head guard saw it he was surprised, but he then probed the plate with his own spirit sense.

"It's true… the talisman was used recently, it still has traces of spatial fluctuations on it." He spoke to the rest of the guard.

~Gasp~

All of the guards took a collective breath upon hearing the confirmation. A peak grade talisman such as a teleportation formation was an extremely valuable thing that countless cultivators would desire. Even Dao shell realm cultivates would have a hard time obtaining one, not to mention a core condensation realm cultivator like Shirong.

But the presence of the peak grade teleportation talisman also made the guards aware about the background of Young Master Shirong. While they knew that he was from a big clan, they did not know his exact standing there. For all they knew he could be some third rate cultivator that had to fortune to join it.

But him being in the possession of a peak grade talisman meant that his standing was no less than of the heir itself. As no clan would give the possession of an important item like this to any normal member of the clan unless they were extremely important.

In addition to the guards, the two followers of Shirong were shocked too. They had no idea that Young Master Shirong was in possession of something like this. But what they were even more shocked about was the condition of the formation.

It still had spatial fluctuation on it meant that it was used at least an hour ago and the two knew where they were an hour ago. They had defiantly not seen Shirong use that talisman or they perhaps would have not been in this situation.

'Don't tell me… did young master Shirong really destroy a peak grade teleportation talisman for this?' Ye Dai thought.

Bei Wen's thoughts were the same, but he was also thinking of the time when they were trapped in the bottom of the lake.

'So young master was saying the truth when he said that he was going to surely save us. He had this peak grade teleportation talisman as a safety measure.' In Bei Wen's mind, the respect for Young Master Shirong rose by another level.

Meanwhile, Shirong was pissed in his mind.

'Dammit, this better be worth it and they don't question us further. I do not want to fight so many guards together when they have the support of formation arrays.' Shirong thought with frustration.

When he was being checked Shirong could see that the formation was not a single one but rather a large circuit composed of multiple formations combining to form a formation array. The support of a formation array could greatly increase the strength and abilities of a cultivator.

With the right formations, even a qi refining realm cultivator could kill a nascent soul realm cultivator with ease. Shirong could identify some of the formations and realized that it was a rather complex array, which could be dangerous for him if he ended up in a conflict with the guards.

Shirong could also assume from this that this formation array was linked to the rest of the outposts and thus made the structure of the barrier itself. He could imagine the spirit qi supply that was powering it. If the formation array targeted them with the support of even just the head guard, they would not escape it easily.

But the thing that was troubling Shirong the most was that they even had a formation that could check the contents of a spatial storage treasure. While he knew it was likely that they won't check his without a proper reason because of his background, he was still not fully sure.

'If I had known there were so many guards and this formation array here, I would have never killed those people like that and would have taken a different approach. Or I should have just used the peak grade teleportation talisman to teleport us away from the outpost.

Everything was messed up because of them. I'll have to report this to the patriarch. The Ling Kingdom is definitely planning something big. There is no way some measly clans from a secondary city like Deer Wood city could keep up with the costs of running a formation array like this they are being supported by someone big." Shirong determined.

"The cultivators of the royal court!… They never told the full story, did they? The spear was also at the outer area, of course they must have tried to take it with them and then failed.' Shirong suddenly realized.

Just as this was happening, another guard walked into the room and spoke.

"I have informed the clans about everything. They have asked us to escort them to the Deer Wood city immediately." The newly entered guard spoke.

~Phew~

As soon as Shirong heard the guard's words he knew that the toughest part was over and let out a silent breath in relief.

The head guard looked at the informant and nodded his head.

"Do you need a carriage or are you able to fly on your own?" The head guard asked the Trio.

"We can fly on our own, we… will manage," Shirong answered for the three of them and the other two also nodded in acknowledgment.

"Tsk, Tsk, Tsk… this guy is still pretending huh? Talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing or what is it that they say? Umm… oh yeah, pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger." Lin Wu said upon witnessing the entire thing.