[Li Family Year 373]
[Special Event—The Vanished Twelfth Prince]
[The prince your family supports, Feiheng, has vanished without a trace while en route to Duskwild Prefecture. The life tablets of his twelve accompanying guards have dimmed; all have perished.
The numerous factions of the Azure Dynasty are shaken with fear, the Human Emperor is enraged, and Imperial Preceptor Min Youguo has dispatched a host of masters to Duskwild Prefecture to search for him.]
...
Duskwild Prefecture is located in the southeastern part of the Azure Dynasty and governs eight regions.
The Li family now controlled the Eternal Sun Prefecture, known as the 'Land Favored by Spirit Dragons', and only its border areas had ever been called the 'Southern Barbarian' lands.
This Duskwild Prefecture, however, was a different matter entirely; the whole prefecture was known as the land of the 'Eastern Barbarians'.
Despite comprising eight regions and controlling the largest territory in the Azure Dynasty, its population officially registered with the Imperial court was no more than ten million.
This was because the terrain of Duskwild Prefecture was complex, consisting mostly of high mountains and dense forests.
It was also home to the greatest number of fiends and monsters in the entire Azure Dynasty.
The place even had another name: 'the Little Endless Forest,' a testament to its immense danger.
Consequently, the human population in Duskwild Prefecture was much smaller.
Even after more than a hundred thousand years, the prefecture remained difficult to develop, for no one ever knew what might emerge from the depths of its old mountains and forests.
The common folk and cultivators living in Duskwild Prefecture were exceptionally fierce, even more so than the people from border regions like Azure Cloud.
They carried on the customs from the age before the Imperial Dynasty was founded, a time when the Human Race struggled just to survive in the world.
They believed in gods and they believed in immortals; some even worshipped the spirit beasts of the great mountains as deities, seeking their protection.
At that moment, high above the great mountains of Splitridge Region in Duskwild Prefecture, several figures were weaving through the clouds.
"That was a close call. We only managed to loot a few treasure vaults from the Wu Clan and hadn't even properly reminded the Divine Bird Tribe of our names before being sent to this godforsaken place."
Li Tianyi, traveling by sword flight, had a face as black as thunder.
He had been in the middle of a major operation with his two younger brothers in the territory of the Divine Bird Tribe.
They had just spotted a group of incomparably powerful Wu Clan masters recuperating from their injuries, and he was about to send Tianqi in to see what he could filch when the clan's message arrived.
The flash from the communication stone had nearly gotten them caught on the spot.
In the blink of an eye, they were dispatched to Duskwild Prefecture with the mission to find and retrieve Feiheng.
Li Tianyi could only reflect on how perceptive his clansmen were. They had seen at a glance that their renowned 'The Three Thieves' could accomplish what others could not.
Hearing this, Li Tianqi felt a similar regret. However, sensing the people of Duskwild Prefecture performing a sacrificial rite in the distance, his interest was piqued.
"Big Brother," he said, "this is our first time in Duskwild Prefecture. Besides looking for Feiheng, we can find some other amusement as well. We couldn't find a shamanistic technique to cure Tianming back in the Wu Clan's lands.
But the people here in Duskwild Prefecture like to summon deities, perhaps we can actually find a way to cure him here."
"Cure what?!" Li Tianming snapped. "You're the one who needs curing! Your whole family needs curing!"
With his hands clasped behind his back, Li Tianming furrowed his brow, his eyes flashing with a sharp light. He looked for all the world like a rare, coolly handsome man.
"But Tianqi is right," he said with a cold snort. "Big Brother, Duskwild Prefecture is a good place. We've grown tired of the Wu Clan's territory, and there's nothing left worth our patronage there anyway."
Seeing him act this way, however, brought no look of joy to the faces of Li Tianyi and Li Tianqi.
For the past ten years, the two of them had never left Tianming's side.
While they had roamed the Wu Clan's lands practicing their old trade, their other purpose had been to find a cure for Tianming's madness.
Tianming's affliction was a grave concern.
Back in the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode, they had been forced to learn of their brothers and sisters perishing one by one, powerless to help.
Now, they could no longer bear the grief of losing another clan member.
No matter what, they could not allow anything to happen to Tianming.
Li Tianming continued, "Feiheng must be rescued. Our family has fought tooth and nail to reach its current position. With Feiheng, we have a powerful backer.
More than that, he is the designated Crown Prince in the Human Emperor's heart, and that makes him crucial to our Li family."
"We'll start our investigation where Feiheng's guards died. I refuse to believe the ones who captured him could leave not a single clue behind. And I refuse to believe a Divinity Transformation expert could be killed or captured without a single soul sensing it for 50 miles in every direction!"
"Feiheng isn't dead yet, which means his captors have a reason to keep him alive. All we have to do is find him!"
As he spoke, Li Tianming landed on the ground, his hands already forming incantation seals.
"By the laws of Heaven and Earth, wandering souls of the ten directions, hear my command! Tell me, what did you witness in this place?!!"
"Wandering souls of the ten directions, hear my command!"
"..."
Up on the mountain, Li Tianyi and Li Tianqi watched as Li Tianming attempted to summon souls for a full hour... The kid clearly had no idea how to perform such a technique.
He didn't summon a single soul; instead, he managed to summon an irritated Golden Core stage Demon King whose rest had been disturbed.
They let Li Tianming continue his foolishness.
Back then, they were the ones who had gone with Tianming to the Tian Xing Cultivator Abode.
When Tianming went mad, they felt they bore a great deal of the responsibility.
As long as he didn't stir up any truly major disaster, they would continue to look after him to the best of their abilities.
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