Dual Cultivation God Returns

Chapter 1099: No one to blame

"Are you ready?", Wu Long glanced at the small white fox sitting on his shoulder.

"What’s there to ready myself for? This is my elment. It comes as naturally to me as swimming is for fish and... whatever it is that you humans do that’s natural to you", Fen Baihu didn’t hide the prideful tone in her voice while speaking.

Then the look in her eyes shifted to excitement and mischief, "But for you to come up with this plan... Hehehe, I knew it! You finally feel the call of the fox instinct from the bloodline! The call to mess with people and watch them running around in chaos and confusion!"

Her final exclamation was full of triumph as a helpless smile appeared on Wu Long’s face. He shook his head with amusement and then put on the bronze mask that Yin Xiu chose for him - the mask that the ’Grim Reaper of the Crow King’s Nest Arena’ was last seen in, "Alright, let’s start then"

The hunt for the ’treasure’ of the Boundless Immortal World, while not immediately dangerous, was the most risky factor for the Eternal Duality Valley, if given enough time to fester. Thus, it was the first thing that Wu Long focused on after the situation with Hong Xinyi was dealt with.

The solution to the problem was rather simple - the mysterious ’treasure’ of the higher world needed to be ’found’ and then be transported out from the continent, disappearing in the wider world, taking the attention away from the Soft Meadow Continent.

Being a Celestial Fox originally from the Boundless Immortal World, it was easy for Fen Baihu to mimic its aura even in her weakened state. Especially when dealing with the level of people currently searching for some kind of treasure on this continent.

And the perfect foil to find and disappear with the treasure was an already well-known ’face’, who plausibly had enough ability to escape from this continent while being chased and besieged by many Transcendent cultivator experts at the top of the food chain here.

Not to mention, this would further raise fame for this identity, something Wu Long was interested in doing for future plans he had for the masked Death Arena fighter, in whose case, the more bad attention he got the better and more effectively he could be used.

After appearing slightly outside the Silver Wing City, Wu Long discreetly traveled toward the area currently combed through by treasure hunters.

Even before reaching the vicinity of the search area, it was already noticeable that there were a lot more cultivators out in the previously rather unpopulated areas of the land.

A few dozen kilometers away from the area that Hong Xinyi fell toward, the increased presence of small groups and individual cultivators in usually empty, vast areas became far more obvious. They were milling around and seemingly aimlessly circling the area both in the air and on the ground, in enough concentration to make the wilderness feel like a populated area like the outskirts of a large city.

"Hehe, are these rogue cultivators also feeling lucky?", Fen Baihu chuckled, and then added with a bit of confusion, "Though it’s still a bit far from where the center of the wormhole was..."

"The big factions on the continent are occupying the central area of the search, keeping the riff-raff out, so they have no choice but to look around here", Wu Long shrugged his shoulders,"Not to mention that many of them are onlookers, here to witness the excitement"

"Hehe, all the better, it’s good to have an audience", Fen Baihu chuckled, anticipating the upcoming uproar.

"I won’t count on them staying a simple ’audience’ when we break down the order that keeps their ambitions in check", Wu Long smirked under the mask, shaking his head.

"Ah, I forgot about that... they’ll turn into a rabid and violent mob at first sign that they might benefit from chaos, right?", she made a sigh, but then quickly cheered up, "Hehe, that just means more people to mess with"

Wu Long chuckled, shaking his head, "Bright side all around, huh?"

"Of course! The only boring outcome would’ve been if there were no one to mess around with", she replied with a voice full of enthusiasm for the upcoming ’show’.

At this point, however, there were already occasional patrolling groups of the larger factions making rounds, not interfering with the rogue cultivators and small weaker groups, and yet closely monitoring the situation.

"Are they worried these people might actually find something valuable?", Fen Baihu immediately guessed their purpose here.

"Just as the rogue cultivators can’t help but have some hope of finding something, so too the larger factions think there might be a miniscule chance there’s something out here, even if it’s still a bit too far from where Xinyi fell", Wu Long nodded.

He stopped masking his presence not far from the main area of the search, when the perimeter of patrolling cultivators from multiple factions became visible at a distance of a mortal’s eyesight. There were Silver Wing City Lord Manor Guards and the Iron Claw Group members, as well as the big Sects, the Wei Dynasty soldiers from the delegation, and even people from the Crow King’s Nest, as well as multiple visiting factions from outside.

The various factions did not mix, each patrolling their own areas of the cordoned-off zone, vigilant of one another, but at the same time bound by mutual interest of keeping out the smaller factions and rogue cultivators, increasing the chances that one of the bigger factions can get their hands on the ’treasure’.

There was an empty buffer zone between the patrols of the big factions and the roaming rogue cultivators, so Wu Long became very conspicuous as soon as he emerged from the approached the cordoned-off area, which immediately alerted several patrolling groups.

However, Wu Long deliberately chose to approach from the side that was patrolled by those very familiar with his mask - people of the Crow King’s Nest, so as soon as they impulsively moved toward him, all 5 of the groups that spotted him froze on the spot upon recognizing the Grim Reaper of the Arena, not daring to approach or impede his way.

There was visible turmoil on their faces, as they exchanged looks that seemed to ask each other what to do. They weren’t supposed to let anyone through, but no one wanted to stand in front of this death incarnate and tell him he can’t go any further.

"L-let’s notify the higher-ups...!", one of them spoke up to his patrol group, his eyes lighting up with what he thought was a brilliant idea as he hurriedly took out a communication talisman.

"And if they tell us to stop him?", another one grimly said, reaching out to grab the hand that the former held the paper talisman with, "Huh? Genius? What will you do then?"

This quickly cooled down the excitement of the former, as he weakly mumbled, "B-but if we let him through just like that..."

"Listen... we just didn’t see him... no one did", another one spoke up, as they exchanged glances that spoke more than words.

"R-Right, if no one saw him... there’s no one to blame", another one slightly nervously nodded after a gulp.

"B-but what if...", the first one that came up with the idea to notify the higher-ups spoke fearfully, looking at the other groups.

"They won’t say anything either... because if we go down - they go down too, we’re all in the same boat..."

This sealed the discussion, as various versions of the same discussion happened in all 5 groups that spotted Wu Long.

Among them, there was a group with a few familiar faces - guards that Wu Long met at the entrance to the Inner Palace of the Crow King’s Nest. And one of them, suddenly saw a small fox on Wu Long’s shoulder, causing him to widen his eyes, point his finger, and after a brief pause of seemingly being too stunned to speak, start making some incoherent noises, that very remotely resembled something like "I knew it! See? It’s there! It’s right there!", only to be met with strange looks and see that after turning away for just a split second, there was no sign of anything on Wu Long’s shoulders after all.