Chapter 456: The Storm That Shook The Empire

Alex ran as he had never run before. Seeing such massive beasts being carried around like toys in the storm scared him. What was worse than it was scary fast, and he would definitely not outrun it. 

Soon, he realized that he had to stop. Running was not the way. 

'What do I do? Where do I hide?" he thought and looked around, only to see nothing but the dunes of sand. 

'Underneath?" he thought for a moment. "I have no choice," he thought and quickly took off his robes to use it as a mask. He then dug a hole as fast as he could and jumped in before covering himself with sand. 

He hoped that this would keep him safe from the storm. It didn't. 

Massive winds ripped the very sand from underneath Alex as they sent him tumbling away with them. 

He barely opened his eyes to see the beasts and yang jades floating around. However, he didn't focus on either of them. 

The thing he was most fascinated by was actually the yellow energy inside the storm that he hadn't noticed before. It was bright and strong, and it slowly dying down. 

He closed his eyes as the sand started hitting his eyes. Thankfully, the storm wasn't strong enough to harm him at all. It was only fast and not strong at all. 

Alex decided to wait out the storm which was already slowing down. 

Sometime later, Alex realized that he was just flying through the air by the initial force of the push, the winds were no longer carrying him and he was falling down back to the ground. 

He looked around and saw that the beasts and the yang jades were also falling down around the same place as him. 

He then looked at the yellow energy and realized, the energy had barely slowed down at all. Even though the wind was gone, the energy stayed. 

Alex and the rest of the objects in the air fell on the other side of the river, but the yellow energy kept on going forward. 

* * * * * *

Ma Rong was in her room trying to practice her control over her Yin Qi. She let go of all control and white mist started appearing around her body that slowly drifted downwards. 

Ma Rong could feel the Yin Qi leaving her body as the ground slowly started frosting over. 

Immediately, she breathed in and all the Yin Qi that was floating around her was sucked into her body through the various pores and organs. 

Not a single Yin Qi remained outside. 

Ma Rong, however, struggled to keep them in for very long. She soon had to slowly let it escape out, although at a very low amount. 

She sighed and smiled. She had improved a little at least. 

"Finally, I can go about 10 minutes without leaking any Qi. Although, I should find other ways to do this. This one method isn't working," she thought. 

She tried coming out with ideas to somehow keep leaking her Qi without it interfering with anything else. 

She even thought of using artifacts that could story Yin Qi, which she could later either throw away or maybe even sell for quite a profit. 

She thought of expelling every single yin Qi in her house before leaving for anything, 

She even thought about practicing some yang-based cultivation method to counteract the yin in her body.

However, none of those ideas was something she could use right now, so she had to wait and think a little longer before she did that. 

"Alright, let's continue," she thought and started once more. 

She started spilling out her yin Qi into the air and soon her whole room was filled with it. The amount of frost had increased by a lot and the overall temperature of the house was starting to get colder than the Northern Continent. 

"Now, to take in," she thought and took a deep breath.

Suddenly, she felt something go past her. Something… warm but at the same time burning. 

The Yin Qi in the room disappeared like water on a piping hot metal. The room immediately defrosted, and it was just a puddle of water now. 

Ma Rong herself felt that she had completely run out of Yin Qi. 

"What… just happened?"

* * * * * 

"Alright, the meeting is adjourned," Wen Cheng said as he sent the elders away. It was past evening, so it was time for him to return to his house too. 

However, he soon realized that one of the elders had stayed behind. Wen Cheng was quite surprised.

"What's going on, elder Jung?" he asked. 

Elder Jung was one of the main elders that were in charge of the disciples. He was the de-facto leader amongst the group of elders responsible for working in the Disciple hall. 

"Um, sect leader, I had a little something to speak to you in private," Elder Jung said. 

"Please say it. We are as alone as we can get," Wen Cheng said, very curious as to what this elder who rarely wanted to talk with him had to say. 

"Uhh, this is about disciple Mei. Do you happen to know where she is?" the elder asked. 

"Of course. She's currently back home. Her father is a little ill, and he's looking after him," Wen Cheng said. 

"Oh, I see," elder Jung said, fidgeting a little. 

"Elder Jung, if you have something to say, please freely say it," Wen Cheng said. 

Elder Jung sighed. "Sect leader, did you know that disciple Mei took a 2-week break before leaving?" he asked.

"Yes, I was the one that took the leave for her," Wen Cheng said. 

"Oh, that makes it a little easier to explain then. You see, sect elder, Disciple Mei's official leave ended yesterday. I thought that was an error and decided to wait today for her to return, but she didn't."

"Still, I left her as absent on leave for today as well. However, if she truly isn't back by tomorrow, I can't keep her absent on leave on Monday," Elder Jung said. 

"Sigh, so that's what you wanted to talk about," Wen Cheng said. "You can put her on Absent without notice, elder Jung. You can also make her rank available for grab. If any disciple chooses to take it, they may. You do not need to feel guilty about this."

"Ah, I see. You've already thought of the consequences. I shall do that tomorrow then. That is all, sect le—"

"Sect Leader!" someone came running into the room. The elder who had just walked in was a younger one, and Wen Cheng frowned when he saw that. 

He was about to scold the elder for barging in without notice, but then he saw the horror and confusion on the elder's face. 

"What happened?" Wen Cheng asked inquisitively. 

"The… The Treasury room, sect leader, " the elder spoke. "Something is happening in the treasury room."

* * * * *

"Do you really think we can't kill the Jaguar at all? The 3 of us together?" Fu Zexian asked. 

He was currently in a large, white room with crimson furniture, drapes, and carpets. He was sitting on a large chair with two other chairs in front of him, facing towards himself. 

On one of the chairs was an ordinary-looking man wearing simple attire. But this was heavily contrasted by his clean-shaven face and stark red hair. He also had a very haughty attitude that made him stand out more than the Emperor he was before.

On the other chair was a thin man with long jet black hair. He was quite good-looking, but he had a rather fat mustache that didn't seem to match with his face. 

These were the two Saint realm cultivator named Yang and Feng.

"You didn't feel what we felt, brother Zexian. That beast… that monster, it was on a different league of its own," the long black-haired Feng said with fear in his mind at just the thought of the jaguar again. "Tell him, brother Yang."

"It's true, brother Zexian. We keep telling you, but you don't believe us. That beast is truly very strong," the red-haired Yang said.

"I understood that it's strong. But this time you will have me too. Last time, I was alone in the fight, and you two joined very late, which was why the Jaguar ran away at that time," Zexian said. 

"And then two weeks ago, you two went chasing it and lost."

"But this time, if we meet it, we can all fight together from the very start. There is no way the beast could survive us at that time, right?" Zexian asked. He truly didn't like thinking that there was a beast out there that could destroy half of his empire before he even realized it was attacking. 

"Brother Zexian, brother Feng and I barely entered the Saint Foundation realm a few decades ago. You have been in the Saint Foundation realm for almost a century now, so there is no way I doubt your strength, brother."

"However, please believe me when I tell you this, that beast… its cultivation base should be beyond the Saint Foundation realm. It's definitely in the Saint Core realm," Yang said. 

"What? No way," Zexian said in surprise. "If it truly is in the Saint Core realm then why hasn't it attacked us already? I see no reason for it to return every time it attacks."

"In fact," Feng spoke from the side. "I wouldn't be surprised if it were in the Saint Soul realm either. We are just assuming at this point because it showed us a level of power we had never seen before. Not from you, not from the old man."

"Yes," Yang said. "As for why it doesn't attack us… I do have an idea. I think the beast isn't really intent on harming us at all. You said it spoke about it wanting something right?" 

"Yes, it said something about duty to acquire something. I didn't listen pay much attention at the time," Zexian said. 

"Yes. It said the same thing when fighting us too. It seems to not want to resort to violence unless necessary, so when we fought, it didn't harm us. Instead, it asked to let way to get something," Feng said.

"You think if we give what it wants to it, it will leave us alone?" the Emperor asked. He was willing to let go of something if it was for his empire. 

"Unfortunately, we have to clue," Yang said. 

"No, we do," Feng suddenly said. "You remember the flying boat?"

"What flying bo— Oh, the one you talked about. You should know my eyes aren't as good as yours, brother Feng. I couldn't see anything at that time," Yang said.

"What's this about a flying boat?" Zexian asked.

"You see there was this weird little boat flying away in the direction the jaguar was going towards, just moments before we arrived. I barely managed to see its shape from far away," Feng said. 

"You think that boat had what the beast wanted?" Zexian asked. 

"Yeah. Although we don't know what it was, so searching would be troublesome," Feng said. 

"That is tru—"

Suddenly, the 3 of them stood up and looked towards the west. They were all frowning and slowly starting to sweat. 

"What was that?" Yang asked. 

"I don't know, but it felt… strong," Feng said. 

"That's… not a person. Neither is that a beast. Just what was that energy," Zexian asked. 

"That felt… dangerous too," Yang said. 

Zexian suddenly took out a talisman that was slowly glowing and spoke into it. "Yes father, I felt it too. I will look into it," he said. 

Zexian felt defeated.

"First the beasts attack, then Zexi disappears and now this. Just what is happening in this empire," he frowned. 

"Finding a way to deal with the beasts should be our number one priority, brother Zexian," Feng reminded. 

"Yes, I know. But the other two can't be ignored either," Zexian said. "You two don't need to worry, I will find an answer to it all. For now, I will send a small unit to find out any information they can in the west."