251 Chapter 251 (1/2)

”It's really quiet… too quiet… where are all the animals?”

He wasn't far away from the border wall now. He was expecting to get to the bottom of this but he couldn't see any bodies to tell him their tale. He did see some claw marks on the border wall and they weren't that old.

”Maybe I'll find something further in…”

This was still far away from the main Divine Fist Sect location. He used his system map to place a waypoint marker. He placed it on the location where Fang Heng was supposed to be. He was still surprised that there was no word from him whatsoever, it was odd but there could be one reason for it.

Before continuing further he decided to stop and land. He stretched out his hand while opening up his palm. He used some spiritual energy to slowly suck the mist towards his palm. He started condensing it together while gathering the fog up in a more solid form. He only stopped after getting about a marble-sized item, what he was left with was a cloudy dark gem that radiated strange energy.

He looked over it and could feel a peculiar demonic like aura coming off it. He gave it a little poke with his finger but nothing seemed to happen. The second test was similar but this time around he dispersed the holy energies from his aura that were protecting his finger.

There was a response. The moment his skin made contact with the concentrated mist he could feel his energies being drained. He quickly defended himself against them by reapplying his holy aura.

”It's draining my vital energies… but that's not all…”

He took out a teleportation beacon from his spatial ring. This one wasn't the same that he gave Fang Heng, it connected back to the United Element Sect's teleportation gate. He tried activating it but for some reason, it wasn't working. Something was blocking out the signal from going through entirely.

”So it's because of this mist…”

Zhang Dong had his answer to why he couldn't get in touch with the Divine Fist Sect elder. This fog was blocking out the signal.

He grasped the condensed fog with his hand and crushed it. The moment it made contact with his holy elemental energy it just crumbled into nothing.

He followed it up with another burst of his golden aura, this time he backed it by a lot more of his cultivation base. The bright energies spread through the area reaching about 100 meters in diameter. The mist was forced back or more likely the energies were destroyed due to the holy elementals.

It was too early to summon help for now but he used this chance to send his wife a quick message that he was inside.

Getting more people in here would be troublesome now. This mist was robbing people of their vital energies, he was only fine due to his unique cultivation method. No one from the nascent soul elders had a holy element to their cultivation method. They might be susceptible to this mist if they stayed too long in it. There were ways to help them out with it, but they would need to prepare some contingencies.

'I should probably wait.'

Zhang Dong decided to wait for now. He didn't need backup just yet and if he summoned help now the nascent soul elders in question could run out of spiritual energy. If that happened before they actually fought the monster and its minions it would be disastrous.

He floated back up and inspected the mist free area. The residual divine energy seemed to be keeping the fog back for now but he could feel it slowly closing in.

'This sect practices divine arts, they should have some kind of defensive formation utilizing it…'

He believed that these cultivators were still alive. The reason that the teleportation beacon wasn't working was because of this mist. Even with a protective formation in place, the signal wasn't still reaching him. This meant that the fog was probably still covering it from the top. If it was a dome-shaped barrier it all made sense.

The ground shook as he jumped upwards and headed inside of the Divine Sect Territory. He spread out his senses in all directions while examining the situation. There could have been survivors out here that could answer some questions.

He traveled further in, the mist continued to get thicker but he was unaffected by it. It looked more like it was trying to evade him instead.

After some time he finally came across a living being. It wasn't a human though but a beast, after further examining it he noticed something.

Frenzied Axe Beak [ Qi Condensation 5th stage ]

It was a bird-like beast. It looked similar to an ostrich with sharp taloned feet and a wedge-shaped beak. The most interesting part of the name was the prefix, the monster was in a frenzied state. This brought him back to the past when he first came across monsters like this.

'It's the same as that time…'

He spread out his senses into the surroundings and also glanced at his map while flying forward. There were more animals in the area and they were just wandering around without a purpose.

All of them had similar statuses after examination, it was clear that his favorite squid faced monster was involved. Just like in the past the monster was gathering other living beings and gaining strength. This mist that was all around the land was probably another step in its evolution.

'The more of these it absorbs the stronger it will become, I must hurry…'

He needed to get to that city as fast as he could. He had no idea where those ruins were exactly and even with his speed it would probably take him days or even weeks to pinpoint the location on his own.