"Mm."
Emperor Xia merely gave a faint acknowledgment, as though none of this surprised him.
He still did not turn around.
In the dim hall, his eyes fixed on the map reflected the crimson glow of the dragon vein.
After a long while.
"Three days ago, border scouts discovered the ruins of an ancient battlefield on the frontier of the Undead Kingdom in the Western Wasteland." Emperor Xia's voice was unhurried.
"A faint trace of deathly aura had leaked from the ruins' outskirts. The Northern Frontier branch of the Demon Suppression Division identified it as sharing the same origin as Blackwater River in the Northern Frontier and the abyss beneath Dragon Head Peak in the Azure Dragon Secret Realm."
Lu Chen's pupils contracted slightly.
He said nothing, waiting for what came next.
At last, Emperor Xia turned around.
The hall was too dark for Lu Chen to make out his expression. He could only see those eyes, still profound in the gloom, as if they held the rise and fall of an entire dynasty.
"I have a question for you," Emperor Xia said.
"Answer truthfully."
"Yes."
"In the Azure Dragon Secret Realm, you used the Dragon-Suppressing Key to suppress the Undead Monarch's avatar. Before that avatar was destroyed, did it leave behind any contingency?"
Three breaths of time.
The hall was terrifyingly silent.
Lu Chen's thoughts raced. In that instant, countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
That ghostly green speck of light that had fled amid the chaos—
He had seen it.
Though it had been only an exceedingly blurred instant, though everyone's attention had been on the Dragon-Suppressing Key at the time, he had indeed caught sight of that faint gleam entering the body of a Mystic Heaven Sword Sect disciple.
But he could not be certain.
He could