Chapter 288 - Three Origin Theories
Noticing something was eerie about Lost Isle Alley, Leon's first thought was to retreat. In the face of the unknown, only fools would proceed without preparation.
"Baron Grant, your loyalty, I accept! We are leaving!"
"Thank you, Your Highness!" Baron Grant bowed solemnly and obliged.
Outside Lost Isle Alley, Leon had Baron Grant accompanied him as they circled the outer perimeters of the three old buildings.
"Tell me everything you know about this place."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Noticing the sternness in the prince's tone, Baron Grant also became solemn.
"From what I know, there are four bizarre points about this area. Apart from not being able to see the sky inside, there is one occasion when it can be seen, and that is during the night of a full moon. Moonlight would shine down on the center of Lost Isle Alley."
"Apart from that, light quickly dies out in this place, and the strange cries of a young girl can also be heard occasionally. Strangely, we could never locate the young girl, though."
"Over time, we began to accept that it was the sound caused by the whistling wind blowing through the well. Now that I think about it, it might be the vengeful spirit you have mentioned, Your Highness."
As Baron Grant said this, A bead of cold sweat trickled down from the side of his face. It was quite spooky to learn a vengeful spirit had always been so close to them without their notice.
"Moonlight can enter this place? The center of the Lost Isle Alley was… the well, wasn't it?" Leon mumbled to himself as he glanced at the moon in the sky. Calculating the cycle, it should have been a full moon last night.
Leon gave an indecipherable glance.
Any other ordinary person under the same situation as these former sect disciples and elders would have been driven crazy if they had to hear such spooky cry regularly while hiding in perpetual darkness.
However, considering the Illusory Butterfly Sect could harness yin energy for their cultivation, they should have possessed a few methods to exterminate spirits and ghosts.
Following that line of thought, the reason these people have never encountered the vengeful spirit might be that it knew they were people capable of erasing its existence.
If that is the case, it will imply that the vengeful spirit was quite the intelligent one.
Intelligent vengeful spirits were so much more fearsome than regular vengeful spirits due to their ability to cultivate and evolve to a higher level of existence.
At a certain level, they become tangible and powerful enough to walk under the light of day without being burnt away. Without special sight, it would be hard to determine their existence among a crowd of people.
"What else is there to add? Just say it." Leon said, having noticed Baron Grant's hesitation.
"Yes, Your Highness." Baron Grant did not dare to disrupt the prince's deep thoughts. After he was given the cue to continue, he obliged compliantly. "The area is usually much colder than what it had been tonight. I wonder if it is related to everyone's disappearance in some way?"
"Yin energy is cold in nature. From what you are saying, there is fewer yin energy density in this area compared to the past?"
"Yes, Your Highness. That is exactly what I have sensed." Baron Grant admitted.
Leon began to frown.
An area would only experience a drop in energy levels when a considerable amount has been absorbed, whether it was used for cultivation or as fuel for an array or formation.
Perhaps, there was an array or formation hidden within Lost Isle Alley under the obscurity of darkness, but he lacked information to conclude.
"Wait here."
Leon said to Baron Grant before his body became weightless and rose high into the sky. A clear overall view of the three abandoned old buildings forming Lost Isle Alley was presented to him.
"Hm? This place looks different from what I've seen on the map in father's study." Leon recalled the map and wore a deeper frown.
If he had not overlooked the place from above, he would have missed out on some details. For example, the top of the three buildings was actually connected and formed a perfectly symmetrical triangle.
There were cracks all over the buildings, but they also looked like intricate runic lines from another perspective.
A ball of flame was conjured on Leon's palm before it was tossed down the hollow center, intending to illuminate the darkness.
However, the ball of flame did not get far before it disappeared inside the darkness like it had been swallowed rather than snuffed out.
Nevertheless, the building's roof was illuminated briefly enough for Leon to record a clear picture in his mind. Using his powerful visualization, he kept the crack lines and removed the buildings from the initial image in his mind.
What was left behind was a highly complex formation made of several small runic circles interlinking within a bigger runic circle. From a simple point of view, it looked like an eye with multiple pupils within a pyramid.
"I did not expect I would find a high-level formation here," Leon said with surprise before his surprise quickly changed to graveness. "Unexpectedly, I cannot figure out what kind of function this formation possesses with the rich knowledge I received from the inheritance immediately."
"I will need some time to study this formation before I can figure out its functions, but what I find more concerning is… who constructed this formation?"
For a moment, he thought of demons.
Although it cannot be said that there were demons wherever there is dark miasma, it is undeniable that dark miasma is related to demons.
Leon began to sigh. If a teleportation formation caused the people's disappearance, the situation did not look good for his adoptive parents.
After all, his adoptive parents were not like the other former disciples. They had chosen to abolish their cultivation like Baron Grant to live as commoners in the kingdom.
Although he had given them True Awakening Pills to become Awakeners, they could not have progressed far without additional resources.
Returning to the ground, Leon pondered what to do next.
"Did you figure out anything, Your Highness?" Baron Grant asked.
"There's a formation at the top, but it shouldn't be the only formation. I am not sure who constructed it, but one of these formations could be a teleportation formation. This is just a guess of mine. Nothing is concrete yet."
Leon shook his head.
"Teleportation formation? Where could they have been sent?" Baron Grant asked.
Although the prince had stated that it was only a guess, Baron Grant had taken it as the truth. It was the only logical explanation for everyone's disappearance.
"Where indeed..." Leon said.
He gave the Baron a glance with something else on his mind.
"Is there something you need, Your Highness?"
"I want to see your true appearance," Leon stated.
The Baron was slightly taken aback before he nodded and peeled off his face mask. The Baron's old face was replaced by a relatively younger face of a middle-aged man with fewer wrinkles.
Leon took the face mask and studied it with interest.
"This is quite a high-quality mask. Even I cannot tell the difference between this and a real face."
"That is because a real face was used in the creation of these fakes."
Hearing the Baron's explanation, Leon quickly tossed the face back to the Baron, no longer interested in fiddling with it.
Facing the prince's glare, the Baron coughed, "Ahem, this was also one of the reasons I did not see eye to eye with the sect. Although the sect was not righteous, we have only ever used the face of criminals and never harmed an innocent. However, the sect has been corrupted by power and became unscrupulous in their means."
Leon felt a bit better after hearing this. Nevertheless, it was still an evil technique and should no longer be practiced. Baron Grant agreed with this point.
"What shall we do now, Your Highness?"
Leon thought for a moment and said, "We will head back for now. The investigation will resume tomorrow during the day."
As much as he wanted to save his adoptive parents, he had to be alive to save them. Anything involving demons had to be treated with care.
Among the myriad of races, the demon race was one of the most dreaded races with unclear origins due to their aggressive and invasive nature.
No one knew where the demons came from, but they were powerful enough to dominate one of the divine regions of the Divine Realm after their arrival.
There were multiple theories regarding their origins.
One group believed they are an alien race that invaded Primal Chaos from beyond its boundaries as their first appearance was discovered in the outer perimeters of the desolate region.
Another group believed they were the results of some mad experimentation going wrong after a crazy expert secretly carried it out in the desolate region.
The last group believed demons were the denizens of the darkness, and the personification of all the negative feelings of Primal Chaos, given birth to balance the world due to divine practitioners stealing the energy of the world for themselves.