One moment the Demon was fighting against them, and in another it was gone.
The people of the Grand Sky Pavilion simply couldn't figure out how it had happened.
"Activate the Thousand Mile compass!" The head elder ordered.
"Yes, elder!" the formation masters took out a small compass that flew out and expanded to become nearly five meters wide.
The formation masters stood around it and controlled the runes on it.
~SHUA~
A wave of energy spread out from the compass and covered an area of 100 kilometers in an instant.
~SHUA~
The wave of energy kept on spreading, and as it spread, red dots appeared on the surface of the compass. One could also see an illusion appearing on it, that showed the topography of the land.
Evidently the compass was showing all the living creatures that were within its range. The red dots were of different sizes, some small and some big. Each of the red dot belonged to a creature, and the size of the dot showed their cultivation base.
Most of the red dots were concentrated around the area that the people of the Grand Sky Pavilion were. It was obvious that it showed themselves as well as the cultivators of the other parties that were camping in the ruins.
"Huh…" but when the formation masters observed the compass, they were confused.
"How's this possible?" one of them muttered.
"What's the issue?" the head elder questioned.
"Elder, there is no significant trace of the demon on the compass." The formation master replied.
"How's that possible?" The head elder himself checked the compass and saw the red dots.
"What about these ones?" The head elder saw three red dots moving in the distance.
They were about twenty kilometers from their location and seemed to be moving at a relatively fast speed.
"It's far too weak to be the Demon elder. According to the compass, they are barely at the first Tribulation stage of the immortal realm." The formation master said. "Plus, they are three of them. It is likely to be a small group of beasts."
"But they are quite fast, aren't they?" the head elder was still doubtful.
"They might have been scared by the explosions. Besides, the energy signatures do not match that of the demon at all." The formation master replied. "Though we can do a proper scan if you wish."
"Do it!" The elder ordered.
"Yes!" The formation masters focused on the fast moving red dots and channeled the power of the compass.
~HONG~
Another wave of energy spread from the compass, but this time, it transformed into a small stream.
~SHUA~
It shot out from the compass and traveled towards the fast moving red dots. Like a bullet, it covered kilometers of distance within seconds and reached the fast moving red dots.
"We got it!" the formation masters spoke.
"Show me." The head elder ordered.
The formation masters controlled the compass and a formation screen appeared above it. On it they saw a beast. It was about a meter in size and was running.
"It's not the demon… It's a tiger beast of some sort." The formation masters spoke as they saw the red beast on it.
The head elder watched the beast closely, finding it a bit strange.
"How are there three dots when there is just one beast on the screen?" The head elder questioned.
"This…" the formation masters were now confused.
They fiddled with the compass and tried to see if they could pull up the images of the other two dots. But after a bit, they were still unable to do so.
"There's no change, elder. It seems to be malfunctioning somehow. There's just one target there," the formation master said with a wry smile.
"Bah! Useless!" The head elder scoffed.
"We can't do much elder, the compass can malfunction due to the baleful energies of the Desolate Blood Battlefield." The formation masters hurriedly replied.
"Fine… continue to search." The head elder said before turning to the other members. "As for you lot, go and establish a perimeter! I want a thorough analysis of this area and what exactly happened." He ordered.
The disappearance of the Violet Mystic Life Tree was highly suspicious, and there was no way it could just disappear like that. The elder knew there was something else happening and he wouldn't rest until he found it.
But while the people of the Grand Sky pavilion were wondering how all this had happened, the perpetrator behind it all was already far away.
~shua~
Lin Mu reappeared two hundred kilometers away from the site of the Violet Mystic Life Tree and took a breath of relief. He was already back in his human form and was now naked.
"The transformation is really not good for my clothes…" Lin Mu quickly put on a new set of robes.
He had plenty of them in his storage, so he wasn't that bothered. Next, he closed his eyes and sensed the location of his pets.
"There they are." Lin Mu quickly found them. 'We'll meet two hundred kilometer from here, Little Shrubby.' He instructed the beast through their link.
'Okay, master!' Little Shrubby replied.
Lin Mu started moving towards the decided location while keeping his energy fluctuations to as low as possible. In fact, he stopped using immortal Qi and simply used his body to run.
He had already guessed that the people of the Grand Sky Pavilion might try to track him and wanted to take proper precautions.
Lin Mu had the best method of escaping, too. He could use fade, but it came with the restriction that he couldn't take others with him. Thus, Lin Mu resorted to the help of Little Shrubby.
He let Little Shrubby take the twins with him and run, while he himself disappeared using Fade.
Lin Mu knew that they were focused on a demon and wouldn't pay much attention to a beast. And his bet turned out to be accurate, as they had already given up on Little Shrubby!
