"Wooo, wooo, wooo..."
A low, muffled flute melody suddenly echoed across the Yellow Earth Wasteland.
The people aboveground looked around, while those who had burrowed underground emerged one after another. They were the Thousand Rocks Sect party, still toiling here.
Seeing his fellow disciples about to investigate the source of the sound, Gong Shixi's eyes shifted before he suddenly shouted, "Stop right there, all of you! Get on with your work!"
He stopped everyone, then flew off himself, refusing to let anyone follow. Some vaguely realized what was going on.
At the bottom of a pit, the flute's melody continued spreading in waves, amplified by Magical Power. The person playing it also wore a cloak.
Gong Shixi descended from the sky and landed before him, giving the response, "I came upon hearing your call. A fortunate meeting."
Hearing this, the cloaked man stopped playing and put away his flute. He said softly, "Something has happened with the Heavenforging Sect. It started when Yan Ketao of Summer Path Mountain approached their leader, Zuo Zisheng..."
He recounted how Yan Ketao's meeting with Zuo Zisheng had led the Heavenforging Sect to stop searching for Divine Fire and begin hunting for Shi Chun's party instead.
After hearing him out, Gong Shixi frowned. "You mean Shi Chun has something up his sleeve?"
The cloaked man said, "The Heavenforging Sect came to the Divine Fire Domain for Divine Fire, nothing else. There's only one thing that could make Zuo Zisheng abandon that search and devote everything to finding Shi Chun's party: more Divine Fire. No matter how much Divine Fire there is, once someone absorbs it, finding them is pointless. So..."
Gong Shixi's eyes flashed, and he said gravely, "Could Shi Chun have a way to find more Divine Fire?"
The cloaked man said, "Exactly. Nothing