The involvement of diviners inspired confidence in the members of the Imperial Court, thus making them feel a bit more relieved.
But among the members, there was still one person that seemed to be skeptical of it all.
"That's not all is it?" A rather youthful looking man questioned.
He wore green brocade robes and had a folded hat on his head. Six dots were painted on his forehead with cinnabar while long tassel earrings hung from his ears. The earrings seemed to have small beast fangs hanging from them too with a sinister feeling surrounding them.
The youthful looking man's eyes were silver as if belonging to a wolf but the expression on his face was that of a sly fox.
"Grand Eunuch Tao… What are your doubts?" Emperor Feng asked.
The other members also became a bit tense seeing that this particular man had spoken. From their demeanor it was clear that he had their respect… or perhaps fear too. Regardless of whatever it might be, the man was not simple for sure.
"If the diviners were able to trace Yao Changying's path, why haven't they found where she is yet?" Grand Eunuch Tao questioned. "As far as I know, the divining arts of the Immortal court should be able to find those below the Transcendent Immortal realm with ease." He added.
"This…" it was something that ended up stumping the others too.
They then realized that, even if they had the traces of Yao Changying, that did not mean they also had her. It was the same as catching a bit of smoke, while the arsonist ran away.
"Do we have her location?" Grand Eunuch Tao questioned on behalf of others. "Or rather… Can we even find her location through divination?" he added.
This caused everyone to look at High elder Juxue, putting the man in the spot.
"We… Cannot." High Elder Juxue revealed.
"What?!" War Minister asked out loud.
"How's that possible? Even with the immortal Court's efforts?" The General questioned.
"The diviners of the Immortal Court were close to finding her location, but all of them suddenly had backlash from their techniques causing them to pass out or get heavily injured. We had more Diviners try it, but they faced a block too…" High Elder Juxue answered. "Whatever Yao Changying has done is not normal, and now that she's managed to hide her presence from diviners too we can only consider that she's gone past the point where we can imagine it." He added.
The High Elder's words seemed to make the already tense room, further stressed. Some of the members were even feeling cold at the consequences of it all. "Never had it been that we were unable to go against a foe of the Dao Wind Empire like this." Grand Eunuch Tao stated. "Perhaps it is time we consider that this might just be beyond us. Yao Changying is obviously colluding with powers beyond our recognition." He added. "That does seem like it." At this point even Emperor Feng had no choice but to agree.
The whole situation surrounding her was extremely strange, and they were unable to pinpoint what had exactly happened with her. Even when they tried to look into her past, all they found were dead ends as most of the people involved with her had either gone missing or were simply dead.
"It might be time we send an official summons to the Flourishing Flower Sword Sect… They need to give us an explanation." Grand Eunuch Tao suggested. "Hasn't the Holy Topaz Dynasty already done that?" Someone asked.
"I don't trust them. They have all the reason to hide their involvement." Grand Eunuch Tao replied, his eyes narrowing before he pointed at the formation screen. "Besides… there have been some strange movements since the last few months in the Holy Topaz Dynasty's territory." Hearing that the Emperor sat up straight, looking at the formation screen.
"Did you learn something through your 'ears' Grand Eunuch Tao?" Emperor Feng questioned the man who was perhaps one of the most important members of the Imperial Court.
Grand Eunuch Tao wasn't just any Eunuch, but rather the Imperial Spymaster of the Dao Wind Empire!
He was a figure that was unknown to most outside the Imperial Court, but those that did knew of him feared him. As whenever they ended up encountering him, there was a high chance it would be either their final day, or the day they would have to pay dearly.
The other Intelligence Organizations in the Rust Sky World feared the man too, as his reach was simply incomprehensible at times.
"The Crown Prince had asked me to look into some things after the Tournament. I had assigned it as a task to one of the teams, but there were no results for a while. We didn't find it suspicious and let it run for the time being." Grand Eunuch Tao answered. "That was until three months ago…" "When the Crown Prince left." Emperor Feng muttered in realization.
"I thought that it might just have been coincidence, but now that I've compared the time line that the diviners have discovered from the traces of Yao Changying, I'm sure they are linked." Grand Eunuch Tao stated before standing up.
~SHUA~
He took out a black jade slip and threw it in the air, causing it to merge with the Formation screen and adding more information to it.
The map on the screen changed slightly with a few new routes appearing. These new routes overlay the paths Yao Changying had taken and seemingly showed the path that Crown Prince Feng Shun had taken too. But this was just on the Dao Wind Empire, as when the Grand Eunuch turned the map, one could see more routes on the other side of the Rust Sky World. Particularly at the top of the Holy Topaz Empire. "Those islands… Black Fish Islands, Dagger Sheathe islands and more…" the people recognizing them.
The locations were rather small due to being islands, but they had a great value and were important as all of these islands were once the headquarters of the secret squads of the Holy Topaz Empire in the past.
Back when the wars were still common, these islands were mysterious and most simply thought of them to be some fishing islands. No one knew that they all contained tens of thousands of assassins that would go around the world doing the work of the former Holy Topaz Emperor.
It was a matter of fear for most, and it wasn't until peace was established in the Rust Sky World thousands of years ago when those assassin were abolished.
The assassins were officially said to have disbanded, but the islands still existed. And as such they continued to live there perhaps waiting for the day when it would be time for them to show their might to the world again.
"Some sailors reported strange movements from fishing boats which went unnoticed until we discovered the very same fishing boats docking on the Huiqing Continent." Grand Eunuch Tao stated.
"What? Why there?" The general asked.
"That is what caught our attention too. The mosts surprising part was that they had no goods to sell and yet they brought a lot of people." Grand Eunuch Tao replied. "Though what truly confirmed our suspicion was when they simply abandoned the ships and disappeared." He added.
Emperor Feng raised his brows upon hearing this, as the implications of it were not good.
"That's not all, a few groups that had left from the Dao Wind Empire also reached the very same port in Huiqing Continent and followed the same pattern of abandoning their ships and disappearing." Grand Eunuch Tao explained further. We are now sure that these groups are all linked with a few of them having involvement with Yao Changying in the past. She had even gotten them to participate in the Tournament of the Guardian beasts before." He added.
After the Eunuch had finished his explanation, the entire hall was surprised. They couldn't believe that such a large operation had been running right under their noses.
"What of the involvement of the Holy Topaz Dynasty itself?" War Minster questioned.
"That's another surprising thing… They evidently have no direct involvement themselves. They are only guilty of hiding their past attempts at downplaying Yao Changying's sins. Other than that, they have not done anything to help her. Even the groups from the northern islands have moved on their own." Grand Eunuch Tao answered.
A complex expression appeared on the Emperor's face as he went over everything. There was still a lot of information that they were lacking, thus he couldn't come to a decision on the spot, but he knew they had to be a lot more proactive in things now.
"As Grand Eunuch Tao have said, we'll have to take the next step since the others are not listening." Emperor Feng spoke. "Send a summon to the Flourishing Flower Sword Sect… I want to meet the Patriarch myself." He declared.
