The next morning, Wu Guang was picked up by Ren Ah and Liang Chin, the duo of Elites that had accompanied him to Coastal Hill City previously.

Both of them were good combatants and although they hadn't interacted much, turned out to be pretty easy-going. Or at least with Wu Guang, as he doubted they were like this during their Palace missions.

Over the last month, Wu Guang had made a lot of progress in control and disguise of his senses, albeit most of it came naturally with the increase in his cultivation. Now he could maintain vigilance for over a mile to each side from himself, and be sure that no one under the Sage realm would notice. So even though he was supposed to be safe at this moment, Wu Guang still was on alert.

Thanks to this ability, he picked up that since they left the city, there were three separate auras following them. With two of them being auras that Wu Guang could recognize, it meant that he indeed had a tail after him. But as they moved farther and farther from the city, the two auras that belonged to the Zhen brothers started slowly creeping towards the third, unknown, one.

Normally a cultivator could not even sense people far stronger than himself, especially if they hid their auras and presence. Except Wu Guang because of his Warrior realm senses, which gave him the ability to see through the concealment and cultivation of anyone below the peak Sage realm.

So logically, the tail did not notice anything. Well, until it was too late.

Wu Guang could not exactly say what happened to the person tailing him, but a brief moment after the three auras converged, it disappeared. Afterward, the Head Enforcer and Martial Palace master resumed following Wu Guang's group. Either to continue monitoring for any other tails or simply to protect them while staying hidden.

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They arrived at the 'Earth Cry Ridge' four hours after leaving the city, and there Wu Guang met the group that was supposed to escort the people inside back to the Sect. This group consisted of at least a dozen elders from both the Discipline Palace and the Enforcers. And it was led by Master Sikou himself. After greeting everyone courteously, Wu Guang proceeded to open the door.

He did not go inside and simply waited for a bit before Master Sikou confirmed that everything was fine. Without Wu Guang asking, Master Sikou also informed him about the total quantity of shards extracted, albeit he did it via qi transmission so no one else heard. The amount was staggering, but practically the same that Wu Guang expected. 31442 shards were extracted, but only 29870 could be considered intact. The rest were partially damaged either during the original mining or while extracted, and so weren't considered valuable. A twentieth part of the total was a big loss, but in Wu Guang's opinion, the Refining Palace people did their best. After all, without formations, even he could not extract them all safely.

Master Sikou knew that Wu Guang would be leaving the Sect on a mission, and he knew far more than the main actor himself. So it was not surprising that he passed Wu Guang a few hundred shards. At Wu Guang's questioning, he simply said that he may find a use for them.

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Taking the already packed up shards did not take much time, and so after lingering around for less than an hour, Wu Guang closed the door and said his farewells.

While moving here, Ren Ah and Liang Chin told him that they will accompany him for most of the remnant journey as well, and so the three of them left towards the Coastal Hill City. To be exact there were also the Zhen brothers, but as they had remained hidden until now, it could be said that Wu Guang was traveling only with the pair of elites.

The more they approached the city, the more Wu Guang saw signs of the invasion being public knowledge. Dozens of groups of people, with carts, on horses, or even by foot flooded the road. And the number only increased with every mile traveled.

"They are hoping to buy a place on a merchant ship and leave the island. I heard that some captains even stopped transporting goods, intending to make a killing profit by offering transportation"

"Oh?" Wu Guang wasn't surprised to hear this. As for how Ren Ah knew of it, well, how could they accomplish anything for the Discipline Palace without being informed of something major like this?

"Captains aside, I heard that currently there are also a lot of cities and towns on Fiery Island and Green Pastures offering to sell land. Albeit the price somehow inflated to at least three times the normal" Liang Chin added.

The Coastal Road, or also called the Western Trade Tract, started from the gates of the Black District, where right now a strict policy was enforced to keep the escaping islanders from overcrowding the city.

Thankfully the road could be reached via a detour two miles before the City, and they used it to avoid the mass of people currently encircling the Gates. And even from this distance, Wu Guang saw that they numbered in the thousands.

The first few miles of the Coastal Road also had a lot of people, with their destination being the Coastal Hill City.

"They most probably intended to get on a ship in the Qiu family port, but now that the entire city is closed, they turned towards here" Liang Chin explained.

"I see. Oh, speaking of the Qiu City, do you two know anything about why it was closed?"

"Officially they announced that they are preparing to resist against the invasion, and so have to close the city as to avoid any leakage of their preparations. Some rumors about spies and assassinations also are around"

"And in reality?"

"Internal strife. As you know, the Qiu family Head is seriously ill, and the position has been filled up by his cousin. But his cousin is only 19 years old, and albeit an official heir, he has not been allowed to decide on anything. The real power lays with the Supreme Elder, and he is a coward. He has been advocating for starting sending envoys to the Eagle Kingdom, and even swearing allegiance if needed. That means that a lot of affiliated families, experts, and even some of the Qiu's own would lose either their fortunes or positions. So they banded around the young master and are trying to force his coming of age ceremony to happen right now"

"To take the power in their hands? Or is this Qiu successor someone with a better agenda?"

"Rumors are that it is because of the first, but a few elders have met with Qiu Bao, and say that he is a strong youngster. Not only he is already a 4th level of the Soul real cultivator, but also follows his older cousin's idea of making the Qiu family the main power on the island" Ren Ah joined the conversation.

"Thank you for sharing"

"Don't worry, you need to know where are you going, don't you?"

"Well, the duel will take in an open arena in the outskirts, so I doubt that I will meet any of the Qiu family people, but anyway, it's good to know. Still, how big is the age difference between the Qiu cousins? If I am not mistaken the current head is someone that has been around for at least 40 years?"

"That's true. They have been rumors that Qiu Bao is his son, but it isn't so. It simply that Qiu Bao's mother was the last child, she is almost 30 years younger than the current head"

"I see"

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Wu Guang's journey went without incident. There were a pair of possible encounters with possibly hostile people, but they were resolved behind the scenes by the Zhen brothers.

Ren Ah and Liang Chin urged Wu Guang forward and so they did not stop anywhere, reaching the borders of the Qiu family territory in under four hours. There were three hours before the duel, and the distance to the city was only about 70 miles, so they could be considered to be on time.

No territory on the city was marked or guarded, but from the moment that one stepped into the Qiu family lands, one would instantly know it. The entire Coastal Road was made of stone and wide enough for at least three wagons to travel side by side, but from the border, it easily grew twice in width. Even the stone changed, from the common slabs used before, it was now covered with granite, a far more durable and expensive material. Small taverns, inns, and even shops selling things from the surrounding lands and plantations also started appearing. One could say that the outskirts of the city already started, and they were almost 70 miles from it!

One of these small taverns was supposedly a meeting point with Wu Guang's real escort, and albeit he had already guessed their identity, he still showed a bit of surprise on his face after entering and seeing both Zhen brothers. They had circled them a few minutes ago, but now were sitting as if they had been waiting for Wu Guang for a fair time.

"Good, you have arrived. Rest for a bit, eat something, and we will move out" Zhen Gan said to Wu Guang. As for Ren Ah and Liang Chin, they would not accompany them, having some other matter to attend to.

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The arena where the duel would take place was located two miles outside the walls of the Qiu city. It was part of the training grounds meant for the experts to train both themselves and their disciples, and so it was surrounded by a lot of business-related to cultivation or martial arts.

A few hundred feet away, a big residential district sprawled. The houses, residences, and manors were all different, and built in their own way and style. From what Zhen Mang explained, that was where the contracted and invited experts of the Qiu family lived, and as they came from different cities, powers, and even islands, it was logical for them to have different tastes.

The Qiu family's own experts lived inside the city, protecting the wealth and wellbeing of the family. This clear-cut definition could be said to be a bit extreme, but considering that the base of power for the Qiu's was wealth, it was logical that no outsiders, even close ones, should be allowed near it.

The arena itself was open ground and consisted of a circular stage of about 100 feet in diameter. All of it surrounded by seating. Some of this seating was more luxurious and even had a built roof, most probably meant for the masters of the place.

Although the duel was private, the Wang family had invited a few powerful families, experts, and elders from their Sect to spectate. They were either close to the Wangs or were here to get closer to them. After all, the Wang family already controlled half of the 'Leaf Shadows Sect', and the appointed successor was also a member of it. This meant that in the future, it was very possible for the Wang family to fully take control of the Sect, a few rumors even suggested that they would rename it after themselves. Such rumors could not be trusted, but at least from how they did things, Wu Guang would not be surprised.

Speaking of the Wangs, almost all of their important members had come. With Zhen Gan in front, Wu Guang followed accompanied by Zhen Mang. Both of these experts were renowned on the island, albeit the reasons and treatment they received was different.

Zhen Gan was a powerful cultivator that had joined almost all the possible beast suppression campaigns of the last 12 years. He did not openly care for politics either, and so even among the present, almost everyone had fought alongside him at least once.

As for Zhen Mang, well, his nickname of the Butcher was enough to make a guess. Wu Guang had once tried to ask about how this nickname came into existence, and albeit Zhen Mang did not answer, he later read about it. To put it shortly, Zhen Mang had singlehandedly killed a group of cultivators that raped a young disciple of the Sect. Normally this would be considered a pretty normal occurrence, especially as he was in the right, but the slaughter was so extreme that a few people that saw it almost lost their minds. And neither of the witnesses were mortals!