"Master!"

"Wu Guang!"

"..."

Three different reactions as the people escorted by Kass Shaa'r entered the cave and saw the sitting, with his back reclined against the right wall of the cave Wu Guang.

He had made them wait mostly to finish with the most pressing issues of his circulation, and thanks to the use of all his supply, he somehow managed to do so. The toned line from a small campfire hid his paleness, but otherwise, his uncovered torso, left arm, and face looked almost fine. As for his right arm, he had used one of the pelts that his two non-human companions had layered as a mattress to cover it. After all, why show them a scene that probably would take out all the possible good from their meeting?

Wu Guang was sincerely glad, albeit a bit surprised when Chun Hua had described him Yuan Taotu and Lan Yanzhi as Kass Shaa'r prey, however badly it could sound, and he felt really glad to see them now.

"Master!" Lan Yanzhi repeated and forgetting about the warnings from the strange beast that captured them, rushed towards Wu Guang. And she did not even notice that if not for the latter's almost immediate head shake, five blades of qi formed from each claw on the lizardmen's right hand would have been sent at her.

Lan Yanzhi only slowed down to avoid crashing into Wu Guang, still, the latter flinched as she hugged him tightly.

"Master!" For the third time she repeated, and if not for the bad lighting, Wu Guang would be sure that the young woman, his servant, follower, exbandit, and one of the best local cultivators he had met eyes were misty.

***

It took a few minutes for her to calm down, and for both Yuan Taotu and Elder Chen to approach and sit around the small campfire.

"I am thankful that you were searching for me. Sorry that I could not contact you before. I only opened my eyes about a day ago, and with not a single glyph, I decided to first try and recuperate before moving out"

As a mix of shakes and nods followed, indicating that there was no problem, Wu Guang added

"And sorry for how you were brought in. Kass Shaa'r informed me that someone looking like Elder Chen and Senior Rui were searching for me, and I did not find a better way than to bring them here. Not that I expected him to grab you two" The last part was directed at Yuan Taotu and Lan Yanzhi.

"If I knew that he was bringing us to you I would probably have clung on him right away" Lan Yanzhi chuckled while slightly reddening.

The two men did not say anything about the matter either and albeit he saw Elder Chen's curiosity, and his desire to ask about Kass Shaa'r, Wu Guang decided to move to the main reason why he wanted anyone of his acquaintances brought here.

"As I said, I just recently awoke, and my condition isn't so stable as to move out. So, let me first explain what happened after I was flung from the beach, and then if you three could bring me to the recent happenings, it would be great"

"Mmm." The three people approved, and Wu Guang paused before starting his explanation. A pause provoked by the strange reaction that Yuan Taotu had been showing towards Elder Chen during all their talk. Yuan Taotu was a practically expressionless person, at least if one did not know him closely to understand the slight changes in his visage. This made even more surprising the flinching at hearing the Elder's voice, and the shake of his head each time the Elder called for Wu Guang.

"Anyway, I will discover the reason sooner or later" Wu Guang thought internally and started relating his small last stand, albeit while minimizing the damage that he had suffered.

***

The first one to take the word after he finished was Yuan Taotu, who briefly and in clipped phrases explained Lord Wei's actions. How the latter was scared of entering the fight, how he suppressed Yuan Taotu, and how he returned to the pass a day later.

"A day later? But the distance is hardly over 150 miles!" Wu Guang was surprised by the slow speed of Lord Wei's group. After all, with no injuries and all being at least Spirit realm cultivators with full qi reserves, there should be no problem to keep a running speed of 40-50 miles per hour.

"He's not only a coward but a stupid one as well. He decided to make sure you all die. So he went south along the coast. And then east along the hills"

"Oh"

"Lan Yanzhi will explain the rest. He did not kill me before reaching the pass, but I was beaten up and confined"

"If he's not dead, I will make sure that he dies painfully" Wu Guang coldly promised.

"He's alive, at least for now"

"Good, we lost so many people because of his actions" Wu Guang had analyzed the last moments of what had happened near the beach before the explosions, and he knew that if Lord Wei's unit had entered the fray, he would have a far better chance at noticing the strange group of 15. Especially as Lord Wei would have arrived from their side.

***

Probably to not let Wu Guang dwell in such thoughts, Lan Yanzhi immediately began talking.

"With you raising alarm and pointing out the bombs, we managed to avoid the worst. There were a few casualties of what had been the right-wing, but the new line of defense only received some injuries from the aftermath"

"And you, the soul realm cultivators?"

"Lord Liao and his group received half of a blast, but their combined aura managed to leave them only with a few burns"

"Haa, that's at least something. But what happened after that?" Wu Guang asked and internally grew alert as Lan Yanzhi's expression darkened.

"Hell... I can not find a better description for it"

"What? Did the three bastards attack you?"

"You mean the three cloaked ones? No, they left right away, but not before spreading some kind of powder on their lines"

Lan Yanzhi motioned for Wu Guang to not ask anything, and after getting her bearings together explained in one go.

Initially, the powder seemed inoffensive, at least because neither of the enemies changed even slightly, remaining on their spots. And the battlefield grew still, with neither the enemy soul realm cultivators trying to enter the fray again nor their spirit realm taking the initiative to attack.

Lord Xiao, freed of the battle reorganized the lines and was thinking of trying to negotiate, but before he could, all of the remaining 200 or so enemies suddenly began running to engage. And not as an organized attack, no, it was just like if every one of them decided to do it on their own.

"Their way to fight also changed, ignoring their lives each of them attacked like crazy, and so died in doves. We, the Soul realm cultivators were forced to engage the enemy ones as well, but with them not caring for wounds, the battle turned extremely dire"

A long breath after, she continued

"Still, we managed to keep holding, and thanks to them not planning their attacks, even to turn the battle. And then..." Her expression turned grave and she slightly shivered before saying

"And then the explosion came"

"Another one? But the 15 had already exploded?!" Wu Guang was sure that there were only 15 puppets, and from Lan Yanzhi's words, all of them had exploded by that time.

"Yes, it was one that nobody could have expected. After all, who would expect that someone would be crazy enough as to have an enormous 'Destruction' rune set inside his holding pouch?"

"What?! I..."

"No! Don't blame yourself for not sensing something like that! In truth, No one can be blamed. We later found that the runes were stored on a treasure hidden inside a secret box, one that even Sage realms would have trouble sensing inside"

"Huh?"

"In any case, the spirit realm cultivator took and activated it. The explosion was terrible, and probably killed even more of his own than of ours, but... we also lost a lot of good people. Including Lord Xiao and the four Soul realms with him"

"..."

"After that, the battle ended, with the enemies broken out of their strange state by the sheer amount of deaths. After a few minutes of standstill and attempts to save at least someone, a clan army arrived and ended the battle"

"Clan army?"

"The Snake clan was extremely angered at Wang Ling's attempt to attack their homes, and the Blue Tree city guard you sent to tail the Wangs decided that asking for help was her best option"

"I see, and Wang Ling?" " Wu Guang asked in a deadpan tone. Only hoping that the bastard and his entire family were already dead. After all, if they weren't... Wu Guang did not know what would he do to them for being part of all this.

"Dead, and his soul realm family members along with him. The Snakes did not banter and just a second after Wang Ling allowed himself to show his aura and approach the town, the Patriarch, as they call their clan's head, took out the battlefield along with their entire clan. Later, his two sons, pleaded by the Xiao's cultivator took half of their clan numbers and arrive on the battlefield. They also managed to identify the strange powder, naming it 'Red Haze'. Oh, and they also sent a runner that brought a relief force from the pass as soon as they found the amount of wounded we had"

"Mmm, I can only applaud them for such conduct"

"Rui Qingkai was amongst the relief force, so I informed him about Lord Wei, and we both rushed back to the pass. And when he arrived, he was captured and imprisoned, with a decision to be judged by you or the Sect on a later date. I managed to pry out the location of Yuan Taotu, who they left a few miles before the pass and from that moment we were moving in a pair"

"And what has happened during this past month?"

"Well, I can not say much, as we left to search for you just a pair of days later, only making sure to heal our pressing injuries. But something happened four days ago, something grand enough to make Rui Qingkai abandon the search, leave us an aura searching treasure and disappear" As Lan Yanzhi finished her explanation, she looked towards Elder Chen.

***

Wu Guang had already noticed the unease with which Elder Chen had been waiting for his turn to talk to arrive, and it was strange. After all, what could be so problematic as to make the experienced elder so agitated?

But as the Elder began to talk, Wu Guang's eyebrows began arching in surprise, and accompanying this surprise was a deep, very deep fury.

Two days after the battle on and near the beach, an enormous, 30 thousand men army from the Black Empire had landed on the island.

General Ou along with the almost 10 thousand of his men was hunted like a beast, and except for a few prisoners, the Eagle Kingdom Blue Army, along with almost three hundred ships was destroyed. Leading the army was Chen Jiahao, who after finishing with the Island, quickly took the army towards the Eagle Kingdom, where the final battle of the war would unfold.

The old war minister was appalled to find out that Wu Guang had gone missing, but he simply had no way to remain and look for him, so he commanded the sect three things.

One was to check all of the inhabited lands for stragglers and prepare them for the return of the people.

The second was to establish a light, temporal control over the island, at least until the war ended and some kind of reorganization was possible.

And the third... The third one was to find Wu Guang quickly.

"Regretfully the Headmaster seems to have taken the first part of the second instruction a bit too close to heart, and so the Sect has taken absolute possession of the island"

"I take that the people returning to their homes is at least something" Wu Guang did not care about the Headmaster's domination plans, after all, when the Black Empire sent at least someone to Half-island, they would disappear like a puff of smoke.

"About that..." Elder Chen fidgeted.

"What this Sect's elder wants to say is that they did not even deactivate the formation separating the wildlands and the island" Yuan Taotu interrupted.

"Why?"

"...Because the Headmaster considers it to be unwise to deactivate it until all of the city defenses are repaired" Elder Chen explained in a weak voice.

"Hoh? And how did Elder make his way to the Wildlands then?" Wu Guang sensed that something was extremely amiss, and he did not like it at all.

"Supplies were running a bit short, so part of the loot from the Eagle Kingdom army was loaded on a few ships and unloaded by boats on the same beach where you fought. And the headmaster sent me alongside the supplies to calm the situation, as well to search for you"

"Kass Shaa'r, isolate me and Elder Chen with an aura barrier. No sound, and preferably no view" Wu Guang passed a quick transmission, and as soon as it was done, ignoring the surprised expression of the Elder, he coldly asked

"Elder Chen, could you answer me four questions?"

Wu Guang did not allow the Elder to say anything, quickly proceeding to call them out

"What were the headmaster's exact words when ordering my search? Or even better, did they say - find Wu Guang's corpse?"

"Did the sect already inform the Empire, probably with enormous grief, that I am dead?"

"Who was in charge, and what kind of thing was added to the supplies?"

"And... did the sect kill all of the Clan heads already?"

And as he watched the paling, mouth agape expression of the man he considered an ally, and possibly even a friend, Wu Guang understood that his questions, more a hunch than anything, hit the right spot...