After roughly half an hour, Xu Yusheng had the disciples disperse first, each finding a place to rest and recuperate.
He then communicated with Shi Chen'an by voice transmission for a while. Once they found nothing else had been overlooked, the two also sought out quiet places and went about their own tasks.
Shi Chen'an in particular intended to use this time to speed up his recovery from his injuries.
Yet none of the twenty noticed that, while they had gathered to discuss matters, a transparent figure had landed atop a large tree not far away, silently watching them with a pair of eyes.
Whether it was their hushed conversations or their voice transmissions, all of it had been heard by that person. His gaze only grew deeper and more unfathomable...
Li Yan, perched in the tree, looked up at the sky. Night had already fallen. The secret realm had day and night as well.
At the brightest point of day, a ghastly white sun ringed by a halo would appear, like a feeble old man. At night, everything became pitch-black, and the wind would inevitably roar several times stronger than it did during the day.
Xu Yusheng and the others planned by the full month. Thus, each gathering took place on the evening of the final day in their schedule, while their next departure would begin on the morning of some other day.
By the time they arrived, the sky had already begun to darken. Now, amid the howling wind, darkness blanketed the land in every direction.
After waiting a while longer, Li Yan silently descended from the tree. Following terrain he had long since scouted, he began moving across the entire island with practiced familiarity, like a ghostly phantom in the night...
Xu Yusheng was refining a batch