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Chapter 865: Chapter 871: Friends
"Not right! Where is the Golden Core leader?" The Mountain Protector Elder calmed down slightly, and instantly noticed something amiss.
According to the family rules, each Devil Hunting Team must be led by someone from the Golden Core rank, but the team in front of him was missing any sign of such a person!
"Could it be..." A dreadful thought surfaced in the Mountain Protector’s mind.
"Cough cough..."
Li Hongluo, who had forced himself to take over the control of the Spirit Boat earlier, slowly opened his eyes. Seeing the familiar family attire in front of him, he spoke weakly, "Elder, in that Spirit Beast Bag are Uncle Seventeen’s two Spirit Beasts, and their injuries are very severe. Please release them and treat them."
"Uncle Seventeen..."
The Mountain Protector Elder continued his actions without stopping, repeating the name softly, then recalling who this Uncle Seventeen was, his right hand, which was retrieving a Spirit Pill, suddenly trembled.
"Are you talking about Li Xianyu?"
After receiving a confirmatory response, the expression of the Mountain Protector Elder turned extremely grave, and he said to the patrolling clansmen behind him, "Take good care of them!"
With that, he hurriedly flew away.
Moments later, the Mountain Protector Elder arrived at the family hall and reported to Li Mingzi about the situation of Li Honghan’s Devil Hunting Team and the likely demise of Li Xianyu.
"I knew Li Xianyu had already perished."
Before this, Li Mingzi had been distraught over Li Xianyu’s sudden death.
It’s not that there had never been a Golden Core member of the Li family who had perished; after all, Golden Core members went out for experience annually. How could everyone possibly return safely?
Therefore, it wasn’t merely the death of a Golden Core member that concerned Li Mingzi so much, but because Li Xianyu had been on the verge of breaking through to Nascent Soul, making him a key focus of the family.
"Where are those clansmen who returned safely? We need to ask them in detail about the situation," said Li Mingzi.
Li Xianyu was already dead, but it was essential to clarify why he died, especially since he was a cultivator at the Golden Core Late Stage! In the waters near Wanxian Island, there shouldn’t have been any Water Demon capable of posing a threat to him!
Li Mingzi followed the Mountain Protector Elder to the location where Li Honghan and the others were temporarily healing, and from one of the fastest recovering clansmen, she learned the whole story.
"Six Third-Order Water Devils... a premeditated ambush..."
Li Mingzi’s brows furrowed tightly, noting that the signs of the usual beast tide outbreaks in prior years had never included such events.
"Could we all be mistaken? Is it not a beast tide?" Li Mingzi’s mind stirred and, after ensuring the injured clansmen were cared for, she flew back to the great hall to immediately summon the Elders to discuss the matter.
Initially, the Li family hadn’t paid much attention to the change in Water Devils in the surrounding sea areas; they just saw it as more Water Devils, which meant more Spiritual Objects for the clan.
Only when this incident occurred did Li Mingzi start to take the unusual changes in the Boundless Sea seriously.
"The Boundless Sea is undergoing a tremendous change that we do not understand!"
Before the Elders arrived, Li Mingzi reviewed the recent records and findings of the Devil Hunting Teams. To her astonishment, she discovered that the waters near Wanxian Island, which used to be cleaned of Water Devils, were now teeming with them.
Not to mention the more distant waters—those were almost overwhelmed with Water Devils!
Saying this, Li Mingzi distributed the newly organized data to the Elders.
After a while, once all the Elders had finished reading, she spoke up, "I wonder what your thoughts and speculations are?"
"Could it be a massive-scale beast tide? That would explain the proliferation of Water Devils."
"It doesn’t quite feel like a beast tide," one Elder answered. "If it were, it would be more sudden; even if there were signs, they wouldn’t be so obvious." But he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was happening.
"Perhaps we could capture a few Third-Order Water Devils alive and perhaps get some answers from them."
Li Mingzi found this to be the most reasonable approach and immediately assigned the Elder who had proposed it to undertake the task and discuss further after obtaining the reasons.
Another matter was the arrangements following the death of Li Xianyu, who had not only saved the lives of more than twenty clansmen but also served as a stark reminder to the clan that they had to respond in some way.
"I remember Li Xianyu had twins? They’re also nearing the age for testing their Spiritual Roots. If they possess Spiritual Roots, the family will provide high-quality Third-Grade Spirit Beast Eggs and a Foundation Establishment Pill each. If not, then the offer will pass to their descendants."
"Agreed!" The other Elders had no objections.
After the meeting disbanded, the Elder responsible for capturing the Third-Order Water Devils, together with a few Golden Core members, left Wanxian Island.
They were then astonished to find that the number and strength of Water Devils beneath the sea surface far exceeded their expectations.
However, this also had an advantage—it made their task easier, and they managed to return to Wanxian Island with four Third-Order Water Devils quite smoothly.
Interrogating these Water Devils for intelligence naturally fell to the Elder specializing in such matters, who obtained the answers within two days.
"You mean to say, these Water Devils come from the Distant Sea, and their goal is to gather intelligence from nearby seas?" Li Mingzi furrowed her brows, certain thoughts slowly forming in her mind.
"Isn’t this preparation for a great war?" one of the Elders suddenly remarked.
At this statement, everyone present was startled.
But as they calmed down, an Elder pointed out, "The Sea Clan and the human race have signed a pact forbidding Great Devils of Fourth Order and above from entering the nearby seas; relying merely on Third-Order Water Devils and those Low-Level Water Devils, what can they really achieve?"
If it were a war of such magnitude, it would be utterly pointless!
Unless the Sea Clan had gone mad, putting the entire future of their race at stake by deploying all Low-Level Water Devils into battle—only then might there be a possibility to change the situation.
"Regardless of the Sea Clan’s intentions, we must prepare for a significant battle and start gathering various Spiritual Objects for use in the war," said Li Mingzi after thinking for a moment.
After all, the Li family had many Spirit Sealing Jade Boxes that could preserve Spiritual Objects for a long time; even if her guess was wrong, they could still be sold off gradually.
Meanwhile, a friend of Li Zhirui entered Wanxian Province.
"Such thin Spiritual Energy, yet it managed to nurture a person with exceptional inherent abilities like Fellow Daoist Li Zhirui," Yu Xue remarked sincerely.
Although he had visited Wanxian Province once before, he had been brought along by Elder Song at great speed, unable to clearly observe the conditions below.
Originally planning to spend some time exploring, Yu Xue immediately changed her mind and flew towards Wanxian Island in the east at her fastest speed.
In less than an hour, Yu Xue crossed thousands of miles and arrived above Wanxian Island, not alerting the patrolling disciples nearby.
"An old friend has arrived, why has Fellow Daoist not yet come out to meet me?" She joked, her Communication Talisman entering the Formation.
