After sending the Sound Transmission Talisman, Steward Wang paced anxiously back and forth through the hall. The disciple who had been guarding the soul lamps stood cautiously to one side, not daring to breathe too loudly or even blink as he watched the other lamps that had yet to go out.
"Pfft!"
"Pfft!"
The sounds of two more soul lamps going out in succession were exceptionally grating in the great hall.
Steward Wang abruptly stopped pacing and whipped around to look at the soul lamps.
His face was already frosty, his gloom so deep it seemed capable of freezing the entire hall.
"Two more Core Formation cultivators have fallen..." Steward Wang stared at the eight extinguished soul lamps and muttered, "What on earth happened?"
By the time the thirteenth soul lamp went out, Steward Wang's face had lost all expression. Only deathly stillness remained.
Thirteen Core Formation cultivators had fallen. Even a power like the Fengle Merchant Alliance had suffered a considerable blow to its vitality.
Before long, a yellow streak of flight light came flying in from outside the hall.
The light faded, revealing an old man in splendid robes, his hair and beard white and his face covered in wrinkles.
"Elder Ye, you're here." Steward Wang relaxed slightly and forced a smile as he addressed the old man.
The old man ignored Steward Wang, directing his gaze straight toward the extinguished soul lamps.
Once he saw the names engraved on them, he knew where the trouble had arisen.
"Something happened at the Ancient Cultivator Ruins."
Steward Wang knew nothing about the Ancient Cultivator Ruins or the Spell Pellets, but Elder Ye, one of the Fengle Merchant Alliance's three Nascent Soul cultivators, could hardly have been unaware.
Logically speaking, an ancient Nascent Soul cultivator's cave abode was well worth