Wu Guang's plan's first part went on without a hitch. With Lang Juan and Duqi arriving openly at the small bundle of buildings that were placed on the Wildlands side of the Boundary Road, and distracting the warriors from the clans, the rest mixed with the dispersed refugees and were not noticed. The refugees were checked before being allowed into the Clans lands, but it was a simple formality. It only consisted of a pair of Soul realm cultivators sensing the people and a brief identity check. The latter was mainly to confirm numbers, while the former was meant to not allow any cultivator above the threshold.
At least that was how it looked from outside, but Wu Guang immediately identified at least three rune sets that the refugees would have to pass, which would immediately raise an alarm if they noted a concealment treasure. Thankfully, he had been ready for it, and the ones he had prepared for everyone by far surpassed the capabilities of rune-sets made by a simple Rune Master.
After they were in, Lang Juan brought her uncle, Lang Zheng to a meeting point, where Wu Guang explained his plans and the latter, who had been already informed of the mission approved all of the ideas. Lang Zheng went even further than simply endorsing the plan, he also provided all the information he could on the camps, as well assuring that everyone's new identities will be confirmed by him if needed.
He also promised to inform Wu Guang as soon any development about the war, not that the expected to find out much during the next days. Still, he confirmed the most important thing, that the Eagle Kingdom troops had landed on the island and were currently in the Qiu family lands. No news from there had been received, and the Sect did not want to risk sending any scouts, still, Lang Zheng was sure that they will know hear something in a pair of days...
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All this had happened three days ago, during which Wu Guang had reached the eerie, black cliff that separated the Wildlands from the Demonic Plateau. Albeit he planned to simply patrol the surroundings, he still set up a small camp in the eastern part of the border, only a few miles away from the start of the 'Grand Mountains'.
The reason for the camp was simple, Wu Guang intended to have Lan Yanzhi stay there and breakthrough into the Soul realm, as well as have a little practice himself. Initially, she was surprised by his simple announcement that she will be breaking through, but after he produced the 'Soul Awakening' pill he had previously gotten from the Sect, she understood he was being serious and could only attempt it.
Wu Guang's apparent passivity did not mean that he was avoiding his task, on the contrary, he was genuinely making an enormous effort to keep all of the enormous, more than 120 miles long, border between the Wildlands and the Plateau. Still, the manner he was doing it was one that no one, not even Minister Chen, would have expected. After all, how could anyone expect a Soul realm cultivator to erect a sentry formation? And one that could be not detected by even Warrior Lords?
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At the beginning of the fourth day, Wu Guang was forced to leave the camp. Lan Yanzhi was still cultivating, and so he resorted to setting up an array around the, using his last qi storing treasures, before moving out. He gazed at the almost two thousand feet tall, smooth, and ominously black cliff and then shrugged while turning towards the southwest.
As he began moving, his mind replayed the contents of the glyph he had just received.
"At least five people from the nearby camp have disappeared overnight. They all were young women so we think they may have been kidnapped. We could not find any clues without leaving, requesting assistance or instructions"
Xiao Feng did not use many words, but he summarized everything that Wu Guang needed to know. This was not the first glyph Wu Guang had received from others, and he had been sending them back after replenishing their tracking capabilities. Thankfully, all of the situations could, and were solved by the ones on spot, but... Solving this would require someone's full involvement, and no one except Wu Guang could spare the time or risk their current identity.
Xiao Feng and Wei were covering the supplies, and they had already caught a pair of scumbags that tried to extort money for food. They managed to do so without discovering themselves, and now were trailing a suspicious disappearance of several sacks of food.
The Elites who were supposed to be the backup for such a case were even busier than others. After all, they caught a group of Body realm cultivators trying to set up their entire camp ablaze! Considering that all the six of them, after some very... reasonable interrogation techniques confessed to being hired for it, both Ren Ah and Liang Chin could simply not leave until they managed to find who was the real culprit.
As for the others, both Lang Juan and Duqi were busying themselves in the daily life of their respective camps. The former had already caught, and severely crippled a would-be rapist, while the latter was busy hunting some robbers. The Kuang siblings had not met any incidents, but their position in the Assembly city remained uncertain, and so leaving it would be an error.
Yuan Taotu was the only one that seemingly had not seen or met anything yet, still, Wu Guang could not risk leaving the only place where ships could make landfall unguarded.
And so, by logic, he was the only one who could investigate this sudden disappearance of women.
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Using his maximum speed and concealment, Wu Guang arrived at the enormous set of warehouses that stored the supplies for all, more than two hundred thousand, refugees. He did so without alerting anyone, which made him mix into the lines of people waiting for the food distribution with no issue.
After marking the guards, which albeit plentiful were comprised only of young, at max mid-Spirit realm, cultivators he contacted Wei.
"I will take care of the matter, you two keep at your tasks. Please share everything you know" Wu Guang used qi transmission after approaching enough to the place where all the porters were resting.
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"Mm. The five women that disappeared are from the small camp a mile to the west. Most of the refugees there come from the farm towns near 'Boundary Hill City'. In total there should be no more than three thousand. There had been no word of the disappearance out yet, but I saw how some of the men were gathering into search parties, so I doubt it will remain hidden for long"
"Understood, but how did you even catch wind of the disappearance?"
"The five of them are part of the group that cooks for the camp, and so they have been coming here before dawn every morning. When they did not come today, Xiao Feng noticed it and made me approach Bo, he's from the same camp, to ask. He said that they were not in their tents, and so other girls would come later. Still, he was nervous enough for me to guess that something happened"
"Got it, I will go check"
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The camp that Wei mentioned was visible even from the warehouses, but it was not until Wu Guang closed in that he saw that indeed, something was happening inside. He could see at least a thousand people gathered in what served as the plaza for the camp, and where the only well was located. Adding that they seemed agitated, with some of them wildly gesticulating, and others shouting, Wu Guang could only suppose that they were discussing the situation.
As most of the camps, it was not guarded by anyone stronger than peak Body realm cultivators, but still, the group of tents meant to house the people were surrounded by a single-entry palisade, to keep the random animal or beast from coming in and housed only mortals, which meant that either the guards were in cahoots, or the girls did not even leave the camp.
To test either of these, Wu Guang would require to enter the camp. And albeit he saw no issue on doing it covertly, he decided to use a different approach and after moving from sight, began checking the uniforms and badges he had in possession.
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A few days ago, Bao and Fu were simple farmers from 'Hard Rock Fields', a small village a few dozen of miles from 'Boundary Hill City'. They never expected the entire island to become a battlefield, but their village head was adamant about following the words of the City, and so when the evacuation began, the entire village moved out.
Neither them nor truth to be said the others were enthusiastic about leaving their homes and farms behind, but neither they did want to lose their lives. And so, they were here now.
During their youth, both of them wished to become cultivators, and they did even somehow pass the entrance tests and join the 'Three Hills Sect'. Still, their talent was too low, and at some moment they were simply asked to leave. But now, they somehow winded up as the guards for the refugee camp...
"You two" Both of them jumped out after hearing someone's voice and hurriedly turned out to meet the speaker.
It was a young man, if not to say boy, but the manner how he held himself as well the light armor he was dressed in indicated that he was a cultivator. And most probably one that they could not disrespect.
"Yes?" Trying to sound amicable, Bo, a six feet mass of muscle could plow the field better than any bull could, asked the visitor.
"I am searching for Yanzhi, she is from 'Riverrock'. I heard everyone from that village was sent here?" The young cultivator curtly said.
"They were, but..."
"Oh, then I am in the right place. Let me trough" Without allowing the farmer, now turned guard finish speaking, he quickly spoke up.
"We can not. We are here to not allow anyone from outside the camp to enter"
"Then call for whoever can allow me to enter" An angry rebuke followed
"But..."
"Either allow me to enter, or call for the village chief" The young cultivator continued angrily, and then suddenly flashed out a badge emblazoned with the 'Boundary Hill City Guard' characters.
Bo internally shivered after somehow reading that characters. He had just almost offended a soldier from the City guard! Thankfully his partner came to the rescue
"If Sir had told us before! No, no, you can enter, there is no problem at all"
"That's better"
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Truth to be said, even if Wu Guang was an actual guard of the Boundary City, he should not have been allowed in. But, he had immediately recognized that the two Body realm cultivators, if one could even call them like that, were simple farmers. And as all of the villages and towns in the camp were subject to the city, they would not even dare to say anything to a guard from it.
His bet was right, and so after making a small scene, deliberately one had to say, Wu Guang walked into the camp openly.
He did not move towards the gathering, as to avoid repeating his very thin backstory but disappeared amid the tents.
The camp was less than half a mile to each size, and so his aura enveloped its entire territory. Albeit he did not know how the women, and identifying five mortals from almost three thousand were nightly impossible, his real intention was slightly different.
Only a few minutes later, he found what he intended to find and disappeared from the spot, only to appear near one of the tents near the palisade. He had sensed the air of death before, but now that he was close, he was sure that there were corpses, and a few of them, nearby.
"The women did not disappear from the camp, no, they were simply murdered and buried below the tents" Wu Guang murmured.
After finding the bodies, it was only a matter of tracing the other presences that he sensed from that tent. Mortals were far harder to track because their imprint was simply too low, but thankfully for the victims, the air of death clung heavily to any killer. And so it only took Wu Guang a brief moment to find out one of their killers.
Unsurprisingly, the man was currently in the midst of the gathering held in the middle of the camp.
"So now there is the question on how to grab, question, and deal with him" Wu Guang muttered while watching the man from behind one of the nearby tents.