Prince Yang Jinyan walked in front, the elder was on his right, while Liu Xing was behind them. Together, they walked toward the main gate where they saw an opened gate and a group of Yang clan members surrounding another group.

Liu Xing sharpened his eyes and tried to discern who the second group was, trying to determine whether they were enemies or not.

When people saw the prince and the elder approaching, those near the gate moved to the side, revealing a group of about twenty people consisting of one man, several women, elderly, and children. They wore green robes, and each of them was dirty and sweaty. Their eyes were wide and alert, as if they were running from something and expected their pursuers to suddenly appear.

Prince Yang Jinyan suddenly widened his eyes, and the elder narrowed his.

"Who are they?" Liu Xing asked.

The prince answered him. "They're from the Wang clan."

The Wang clan was the clan they had talked about only recently, and to think some of their clan members had suddenly arrived, moreover in that condition, Liu Xing couldn't help but think that something had happened to them.

After they arrived, the prince ordered his people to tend to the women, elderly, and children. "Give them new clothes, food, and prepare their rooms."

But the man was ordered to follow the prince and elder into the meeting hall. Now, behind the round table there were four chairs. Four of them were filled, with the man in the green robe now busy eating as if he hadn't eaten for three days and three nights.

Liu Xing observed the man. He was past his prime. His skin was already loosened, with several aging lines on his face. He had black hair that he tied into a bun, and Liu Xing could see two strands of white hair on his head. He had a mustache, a bit of a rotund stomach, and pale white skin as if he had never been touched by the sun. His cultivation was also low, only at the Lock Opening realm's third stage.

After he finished eating, he thanked the prince and the elder for allowing him to eat. Briefly, a smile bloomed on his face, but it was soon eclipsed by gloom, with his lips turning downward and sadness in his eyes.

"My name is Wang Lin. And I'm one of the few who survived our clan's massacre. Let me tell you what happened to my clan."

Wang Lin told his story. He briefly introduced himself. Wang Lin was the son of an elder. He didn't have a talent for cultivation and became a disgrace to his family, so he became a merchant and had little success.

"I decided to visit my family for a month. It was my vacation. But to think that it would turn into a nightmare, with my father sacrificing himself for me." His eyes began to glisten. "Wasn't I a disgrace to you, father? Why did you sacrifice yourself for me? It should have been me who died, not you."

He wiped his eyes, took a breath, and continued. "It happened so fast. One moment everything was okay, and the next, there was an explosion. I ran outside to check what happened, and I saw most of the clan compound was flattened. In the sky, there was this terrifying thing floating. Its qi was so oppressive and tyrannical, I thought my heart would stop right then and there. This thing had a human body, snake limbs, and green ears that resembled coconuts. It cackled madly before it launched itself and began killing my clan members. It was so strong that the wind from its attack tossed me from side to side!"

Hearing this, Liu Xing clenched his fists. It was them. Those spirit beasts.

The prince and the elder glanced at him for a moment, but their faces turned back to Wang Lin when he continued his story.

As he listened to Wang Lin, Liu Xing turned his head down and clenched his teeth.

His tale was one of luck and sacrifice. Each time he almost died, there were other people who became bait so he could escape. But each escape burdened him with wives and children and elderly that he needed to ensure survived. And, by pure dumb luck, there was a time when almost all the spirit beasts converged to a point behind the clan compound, and he used this opportunity to bolt.

"I had several talismans that made our presence thinner and veiled us, as well as pills to enhance all our physical abilities for some time. Some of the wives now have their cultivation broken because of the effects of the pills they consumed, but they said it was worth it. Long story short, we finally arrived here."

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Liu Xing inhaled deeply and tried to digest all of the information. One of the most important things was the fact that Wang Lin said there were dozens of those spirit beasts. He didn't mention the worms, and when Liu Xing asked about it, Wang Lin said there were no worms, only spirit beasts that looked human with snake limbs. Their number was great. More than twenty, which meant that at least two of those original eight had successfully split itself. And since two of them had succeeded, there was a high chance that the others had also succeeded.

The situation was as bad as his prediction, and it felt like the air around him became heavier, as if trying to suffocate him.

"Also, I don't know where this communication orb came from. One of the kids said that it was thrown by a black tentacle." Wang Lin put a blue orb on the table. It glimmered under the light, glowing and pulsing faintly.

Liu Xing had never seen a communication orb before, but he knew that the most common—while expensive—treasures used to communicate from a distance were these communication orbs. Seeing this, a single thread of hope emerged in his heart. The Wang clan was destroyed, a clan that was supposed to become a bridge to ask for help. There was only a small chance that the communication orb was tuned to the Tang Dynasty, but Liu Xing clung to that hope.

The prince grabbed the orb and observed it. "A high-quality comms orb. In the Twelve Sun Empire, there are only dozens of comms orbs of this quality."

"Do you have more comms orbs, Prince?" Liu Xing asked. "Could you use this to communicate with other cities? We need to know how bad the situation is."

"I do, and I've already used them. Unfortunately though, the Yang clan's comms orbs are not as good as this one, and only have a short range. I asked all the Yang clan members in the other cities to come back. They readily accepted the order and told nothing else, which means that at that time, other cities were still intact."

"We need to communicate with them again," the elder said. "We need to assess this threat."

"All right," the prince nodded. "I'll go and do just that. Also, I think it's time to throw caution to the wind and spread word of our dire condition far and wide, Elder. The people of the empire are now in danger, and since this threat is too great to be handled by our current empire, we need to order people to evacuate."

"Indeed, there's no need to suppress the information anymore."

As he heard this exchange, Liu Xing's mind worked hard to decipher the meaning, and he came to a conclusion. It seemed the Yang clan, specifically the elder, had tried to suppress the information about the death of the emperor and the weakening of the Yang clan, which made sense. News about the emperor's death, especially at the hands of his own son, would create unrest among the people. Moreover, if this news came to the ears of hostile nations, it would also bring trouble. He knew all of the neighboring countries of the Twelve Sun Empire were hostile, and if they heard news of the emperor's death, they would invite themselves in and try to conquer this weakened empire.

This shed light on some questions he had actually never thought about, like why there seemed to be no unrest happening in the other cities besides the capital. The Yang clan was near the capital, and if the capital suddenly shut off communication, then there must be merchants who would ask around about why the capital was suddenly quiet, wives who would ask around why their husbands didn't come home, etc. To think that the Yang clan members in other cities tried to suppress the information about the capital.

He glanced at Prince Yang Jinyan, who walked briskly out of the meeting hall, and glanced at Elder Yang Zhaoyan, who nodded a little, as if confirming what Liu Xing thought.

He inhaled deeply and tried to think about the implications, and in the end came to the conclusion that nothing had changed, at least in matters that concerned him. It would be good if the people in the empire began to evacuate. But still, the underlying problem still existed and needed to be addressed.

"Do you know where this comms orb is tuned to, Wang Lin?" the elder asked.

Wang Lin shook his head. "I don't. But I do know that it's tuned to quite a faraway place. The brightest communication orb that I've seen didn't shine as bright."

The elder nodded, then glanced at Liu Xing. "This fellow is so lucky, perhaps his luck extends to us. There's a small chance that this orb is connected to the Tang Dynasty."

Wang Lin raised his eyebrows. "Why the Tang Dynasty?"

The elder didn't answer him. Instead, he grabbed the orb and gave it to Liu Xing.

Now, the orb is nestled in Liu Xing's right palm. This orb felt cold, yet also a bit warm. He could feel qi inside it, arranged in intricate formations. He glanced at the elder, then at Wang Lin who looked confused, and decided to get it over with. If this was truly connected to the Tang Dynasty, then he would be happy, but if it wasn't, then he would be disappointed but not angry. After all, it was a communication orb that Wang Lin got by sheer luck.

He inhaled deeply and poured some qi into the communication orb. It glowed more brightly, accompanied by a little hum, as if there were bees inside the orb.

The orb then let out a click sound, and Liu Xing knew it was connected. He opened his mouth and intended to speak first, but the person on the other side beat him to it.

"Who is this? How can you call me?" The voice was calm and a bit gruff, but the strangest thing was that Liu Xing felt like he recognized this voice. He racked his brain to find out who the voice belonged to, and when he realized who that person was, his eyes widened.