The Time Had Come

Time flew, and three or four days passed in the blink of an eye.

Yet on that midmonth day, after the morning court convened at dawn, not a single person was seen leaving the palace.

Stranger still, by late morning, hurried reports from various "informants" indicated that many imperial guards who normally stood watch at the palace gates had vanished. Others simply stood as motionless as clay statues, utterly unresponsive.

The situation seemed to be turning serious.

As the saying went, something sinister lurked behind every abnormal occurrence. At this particular juncture, however, it hardly seemed surprising.

At that moment, groups of people were hiding in a secret chamber, discussing the reports coming in from various locations.

One elderly official among them clearly struggled to accept what he was hearing.

"The guards at every palace gate, the crown prince's household troops, all those taking turns on watch—even if discipline has deteriorated in recent years and the established regulations have fallen apart, there should still be hundreds, if not thousands of them. How could something like this happen?!"

"Lord Fu, Zhuge Wolong has already calculated that yin energy will surge tonight. It must herald the Heavenly Hound Devouring the Moon. I fear the Centipede Spirit sensed the danger too and has taken action—"

"If that is so, those missing people are probably beyond saving—"

More than twenty people had gathered there. Though they shared a room, their voices overlapped, and each harbored their own concerns.

Ultimately, however, unlike Fu Tianchou before them, these "representatives" of their respective teams knew perfectly well what had happened even as they discussed it. Most of those missing mortals had almost certainly been abducted by Universal Salvation and used as "supplements" for his cultivation.

After all, this was not the simplified portrayal of a mere film.