115 One Step Ahead? (1/2)

They finally arrived back at the stone desert. Nothing could be seen of the team that had been given this territory but it could be that they had noticed the array and left because they figured this was the one that had already been found.

Yi Ju couldn't help but turn to Yuan Lei and inconspicuously tug at his sleeve. ”Is this the place? I thought there was supposed to be an array.”

Yuan Lei tensed slightly. Mei Chao Bing hadn't told them about the array and they had only figured it out because of what happened afterward. He himself had never noticed either that there was an array here. He had been looking for more obvious things at that time. But if there was an array … ”You can't see it like this.” He glanced at Mei Chao Bing to make sure he had gotten it right and wasn't making a complete idiot out of himself.

Mei Chao Bing nodded. ”Yes. The array is hidden beneath …” He stopped talking and looked at the sand below his feet.

Elder Xing raised his brows. ”Is something the matter?”

Mei Chao Bing furrowed his brows in response. ”Elder Xing, this … this might be a strange question but … Did the border region always look like this?”

The Elder's brows rose even higher. ”Like this?”

”I mean this … dead. I figured it was like this because of the spirit gathering array. It takes the spiritual energy from the land surrounding it, thus sucking it dry over time. Then the change in the soil would lead to the sand being blown all over the place. The abandoned city we found was buried in it to a large degree. I didn't think of it at that time but coming back here, it is the same in the stone desert. There is sand everywhere. Sand that might not have been here originally and was instead brought here by the demonic practitioners somehow to hide their tracks.”

Yuan Lei's eyes widened. ”Then you mean they did the same thing with the town and we were just lucky because some traces survived?”

Mei Chao Bing hesitated. This … This was what he had thought but now that Yuan Lei said it out loud, it sounded strange. It was way too coincidental that they had found those traces, wasn't it? And how come no other group had been able to detect any array? Was there only this one? Or was it because he had already formed his Nascent Soul and only somebody of his level was able to perceive it? Or could it be that all of this wasn't a coincidence after all and the demonic practitioners were actually a step ahead of them, actually allowing them to find the array and that mural in the city?

Elder Xing frowned when he saw Mei Chao Bing's expression. Obviously, that boy had thought of something but refused to say it. He was of half a mind to ask him about it but then hesitated with a look at the other disciples. Maybe now wasn't the right time. Just like with the conclusion he and Elder Baili had come to before, it might make the disciples panic if it was announced. After all, they didn't know much yet and their experiences were shallow.

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