While he was deep in thought, he suddenly heard a tiny crack. A black tile in a corner of the temple suddenly collapsed, revealing a flight of stairs leading to the underground.
Then, a black shadow blinked out and appeared on the ground!
It was a barbarian warrior wearing bone armor, earrings, nose rings, and tattoos all over his face.
However, evil and wisdom were flashing in his eyes. He did not look like an ignorant barbarian at all.
Also, he was extremely fast when he dashed out. He was like a shadow that flashed in the blink of an eye. There was no telling how much stronger he was than the real barbarians outside!
The moment the man dashed out, a tall and slender shadow slowly 'condensed' from the dark wall, too.
The man was wearing the armor of the qi-trainers, with the emblem of the Burning Sun Tribe on his chest. However, his movements were creepy, and his face was gloomy. His vibe was completely different from that of the Iron Plateau natives, too.
A drop of cold sweat was popping up on Li Yao's forehead.
He did not sense the first expert lurking in the wall at all, but he did not sense the second expert lurking in the wall at all!
Thankfully, he had only snuck into the temple with Neltharion. He had kept Neltharion in stealth mode all the way and glided at the slowest speed.
If he had snuck into the temple in person, he would certainly have been discovered by the expert hiding in the wall!
Judging from their stealth skills and the agility of the first expert when he dashed out of the ground, the two of them were probably above the high level of the Building Foundation Stage and adept at stealth and assassination.
One of them was dressed as a barbarian warrior of the Oasis Tribe, and the other was dressed as a qi-trainer of the Burning Sun Tribe. However, they were quite familiar with each other. They nodded at each other and looked at each other thoughtfully.
The man in the wall said, "The situation has changed. The six tribes of Iron Plateau have been delayed for two days. Plan No. 4 is to be implemented."
The barbarian warrior of the Oasis Tribe who appeared from the ground nodded and left the temple. The entrance to the underground was sealed again.
The man in the wall leaped backward into the darkness and melted into the wall again.
Li Yao did not dare act recklessly. He moved Neltharion almost inch by inch.
Something must be hiding underground. However, the entrance had been sealed and monitored by an enemy. What should he do?
Li Yao suddenly thought of something and left the temple the same way he had come.
Since there was an underground secret room, it was impossible for him to escape. In any case, there was always a need for air ducts leading to the surface for fresh air.
Steering Neltharion, Li Yao circled the temple patiently and examined every detail. As he expected, he found an inconspicuous crevice on the left side of the temple near the foot of the mountain.
Wind was blowing out of the crevice, but Neltharion detected it. The temperature of this gust of wind was slightly higher than the temperature of the surrounding air.
Such a long and narrow crack, not much wider than the width of a palm, a normal person would definitely not be able to enter. If one were to use violence to blast open the crack, they would definitely be discovered by others.
However, Neltharion was only the size of a palm and could dive into the crevices easily.
After twisting and turning in the crevice for half a day, traces of artificial excavation were indeed exposed in front of them, but it was in the crevice. A ventilation duct was buried deep.
Neltharion snuck in the ventilation tube for three minutes and found dozens of forks ahead of it.
The scale of the underground chamber was much larger than Li Yao had imagined.
He randomly chose a ventilation duct. After descending fifty meters, he finally entered a long and narrow pathway.
The pathway was so straight that there was absolutely no place for him to hide. Quite a few guards who were dressed as soldiers of the oasis were guarding the two ends of the pathway. They looked equally tough and did not look like ignorant barbarians at all.
Li Yao held his breath. He asked Neltharion to search close to the wall. At the end of the pathway was a heavy iron door, from which crying and yelling were vaguely echoing.
There was a small hole below the iron door, which seemed to be used to deliver food and water to the people inside. Neltharion crawled in through the hole.
The scene inside surprised Li Yao again.
It was a spacious prison cell where almost twenty prisoners were locked. They all seemed to be young people in their early twenties at most.
Most of the young people were soft and pampered, which was entirely different from the Iron Plateau natives.
Some of the girls were sobbing. Some of the young people were arguing with each other. Some of them stuck their ears to the wall and listened to the noises on the ground carefully. Some of them were comforting their crying companions, but there was nothing but worry on their faces, too.
Li Yao observed the young people one by one through Neltharion. Suddenly, his eyes froze.
He found a familiar face among the young people. It was Xie Anan!
Xie Anan was a freshman in the Refining Department of Flying Star University. She was also a worker of the Skyhill Sword Seminar. When Li Yao participated in the Skyhill Sword Seminar, it was through her that he signed up for it.
After he came to the Skyhill Domain, the two of them ran into each other in the Museum of Sabers and Swords. Through Xie Anan, he got to know some fellow Cultivators in the circle of refiners and participated in the 'Sword Tasting Party' together.
After that, she saw Li Yao training with the Purple Ring Sword Ants. She even tried to train with a Purple Ring Sword Ant in person. In the end, she foamed at the mouth and passed out because of the pain, which left a deep impression on Li Yao.
How did she end up on Iron Plateau?
Li Yao held back his urge and observed carefully.
Compared to a few months ago, Xie Anan was much thinner. Her round, apple-like face had turned into a narrow, long face. She looked much more mature, too. Determination was written all over her face.
One of her female companions was sobbing. Xie Anan comforted her. "Don't worry. Intense fighting noises are coming from outside. Somebody must be here to save us!"
Li Yao pondered for a moment and scanned the environment of the prison cell again.
He had no choice but to take the risk.
Driving Neltharion, he passed through the crowd carefully and stopped behind Xie Anan. He touched her back softly three times with the head of the warship.
Xie Anan's eyes immediately widened. She looked back, only to find that nothing was wrong.
Li Yao pressed the head of Neltharion against Xie Anan's body and wrote on her back, "Don't make a sound."
Xie Anan blinked. Although her muscles were rigid, she managed not to scream.
Li Yao manipulated Neltharion and continued writing. "Go to the toilet."
Men and women were mixed in the prison cell. There was a cubicle in the corner that served as a toilet, although there was no door. But there was a curtain that could be closed.
Xie Anan swallowed hard and comforted her companions. Then she walked into the toilet as if nothing had happened and closed the curtain.
Li Yao continued writing on her back. "Who are you? Why are you here? Speak in the lowest voice possible. "
After he finished writing, Neltharion flew to Xie Anan's mouth.
Xie Anan rubbed her face hard to calm herself down. She covered her face with her hands and said in a barely audible voice, "My name is Xie Anan. I am a student of Flying Star University. Who are you? Are you here to save us? "
Neltharion flew to her back again. Li Yao wrote, "Go on. Don't stop. Tell me everything you know, including everybody's identity."
Xie Anan swallowed and said, "I — I don't know anything! I was a freshman of the Refining Department of Flying Star University. According to the tradition, I was assigned as a staff member of the Skyhill Sword Seminar. But there was a big explosion in the Skyhill Sword Seminar!
"At that time, the entire Skyhill Domain was in chaos. I was affected by the explosion and felt dizzy. I only vaguely remember that a man in a doctor's uniform asked me if I was a student of Flying Star University in the middle of the fire. I nodded, and he brought me into an ambulance. Then, I don't know anything else. “
"When I woke up, I was transported to a spaceship. I seemed to have been locked in an airtight cabin on a carrier. My hands and feet were sore and powerless, indicating that somebody had set up barriers on them. Even my spiritual root was locked. I could not summon my spiritual energy at all. I was completely helpless.
"Somebody brought me food and water every day. Occasionally, a few people in masks came to interrogate me, too. They were mainly asking about my identity and the connections of my family and friends. Occasionally, they would bring a few photos to me and ask me if I knew the people in the photos.
"Many of those people were my classmates. Some of them were celebrities in the Heavenly Saints Institute.
"I — I didn't want to tell them, either, but their eyes seemed to be glowing and blinking. I told them everything before I knew it."
Li Yao secretly nodded. Those people should be Meditation Healers who were adept at mental attacks. It was certainly a piece of cake for them to deal with a low-level Cultivator whose spiritual root had been locked and who was no different from an ordinary person.
Xie Anan continued. "On my way, I seemed to have been transferred to many carriers. But I was unconscious every time. I was in a deep sleep, and when I woke up, I found that the cabin I was in was completely different. Just like that, I was alone all the time. I didn't even know how many days had passed.
"Until … about five days ago, or maybe seven or eight days ago, I can't tell exactly when, I fell into a coma again. When I woke up again, I was already in this prison cell.
"At that time, there were already eleven people in this cell. Later on, eight more people came one after another. Including me, there were twenty prisoners in total."
"After a closer look, I found that I knew almost all of them. Some of them were in the photos that they showed me. All in all, they were either students of Flying Star University or the Heavenly Saints Institute."
Li Yao narrowed his eyes. Flying Star University and the Heavenly Saints Institute were the two best universities in the Flying Star Sector. The students of the two universities were the real geniuses. They enjoyed a high position and significance both in the world of Cultivators and in society.
Neltharion continued writing on Xie Anan's back. "What do they have in common except that they are all college students?"
Xie Anan thought carefully for a moment and replied, "Yes. After we arrived here, although everybody was restrained by barriers and could not summon their spiritual energy, they did not forbid us from talking. After communicating with each other, we found that many of them had profound backgrounds.
"Of the twenty prisoners, twelve were college students of the Heavenly Saints Institute. The Heavenly Saints Institute was a private school that only recruited the descendants of the leadership of the major sects in Heavenly Saints City.
"The parents and ancestors of the twelve of them all held important positions in the six major sects. One of them, Wan Hongying, was the biological granddaughter of the leader of the Burning Sun Alliance!"
The biological granddaughter of the leader of the Burning Sun Alliance, one of the six major sects of Heavenly Saints City!
Li Yao felt that his blood was freezing.
Xie Anan continued. "As for the eight prisoners from Flying Star University, although their backgrounds were not as intimidating, they were deeply connected to many forces in the Flying Star Sector. They were either the descendants of their families or their seniors who held important positions in certain sects. As for me, I was from the Xie family, a noble family of refining. I was the one with the least background among the twenty prisoners.
Twenty descendants of the major sects and families of the Flying Star Sector, as well as the geniuses of the best universities in the Flying Star Sector, had been secretly kidnapped and imprisoned on Iron Plateau …
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