Citywide Search
The remaining possibilities are: either Qingle successfully escaped, or he misjudged his control over his physical body and innate Divine Ability, thinking that as long as he stayed within a certain range and didn't stray too far from the local area, he wouldn't affect the operation of Zhenyang City, but in reality, he still would; or he encountered something troublesome shortly after leaving, such as being captured or being restricted by some secret realm or trap.
Regarding the latter possibility, Lin Xiao thought that people shouldn't be that unlucky, right? Although Qingle wasn't human, she was a tree spirit.
Therefore, he personally guessed that he was more inclined to believe the former, and that Qingle had misjudged his control over his physical body and innate supernatural Divine Ability.
After all, since the establishment of Zhenyang City, according to him, he has never left, meaning he has never left his own territory. Therefore, all his conjectures are just his own feelings and have no practical results to support them.
In this way, the elders of the Zhenyang Sect should soon discover that Qingle is missing and then quickly send people out to look for him.
I was careless.
Having Qingle say that everything was fine in the area, Lin Xiao naturally assumed that everything was fine as well.
They completely failed to consider that although the other party was a tree that had lived for at least four thousand years, it was still just a tree! A tree that had been imprisoned for four thousand years and had never even tried to sneak out of the weak confinement barrier!
Although ultimately this had nothing to do with Lin Xiao, they were still friends who had shared spiritual tea and achieved enlightenment together. Moreover, perhaps because his own sect had several Demon Beast, he found it hard not to care about such a simple and straightforward Demon Beast.
As the commotion grew louder, the manager of the Spirit Gathering Pavilion of the Zhenyang Sect finally stepped forward to quell everyone's anger. He explained to the crowd, "Elder Dan Ling has suddenly become somewhat unstable and may be about to achieve a minor breakthrough. We sincerely apologize for disrupting everyone's cultivation. Please calm down, and our Spirit Gathering Pavilion will take full responsibility for this."
After saying that, he arranged for people to return the Spirit Stone to those who wanted a refund, and promised that they could enjoy a 20% discount when they came to the Spirit Gathering Pavilion after Elder Dan Ling's condition stabilized in a few days.
For those who urgently needed to cultivate and didn't really want a refund, the manager offered them the condition that they could continue cultivating in the Spirit Gathering Pavilion without paying any additional fees until Elder Dan Ling recovered.
After the noisy cultivators were calmed down, the Spirit Gathering Pavilion became quiet again.
The steward wiped non-existent sweat from his forehead and quickly sent someone back to report the situation of the Spirit Gathering Pavilion to the sect elders and inquire about the progress of the matter. It was alright in the short term, but it would be difficult to handle in the long term. If the Spirit Gathering Pavilion could not be restored in this way, it would not earn much Spirit Stone.
Little did they know that the elders of the Zhenyang Sect were already in complete chaos.
They can't find Elder Dan Ling!
In fact, they had been notified about the drop in Spiritual Qi concentration at the Spirit Gathering Pavilion more than half an hour ago. At first, they thought it was a minor issue with Elder Dan Ling Elder Dan Ling were just looking for him to talk to and ask him to restore the Spiritual Qi concentration as soon as possible. However, when they sent Sound Transmission Talisman to Elder Dan Ling, it was as if the Sound Transmission Talisman had sunk into the sea. No matter how much they called, there was no response.
Sensing something was amiss, the elders quickly dispatched people to search the places Elder Dan Ling frequented, but they couldn't find him. They then increased the manpower to search the entire city, but still couldn't find him. They only found Sound Transmission Talisman left on Elder Dan Ling's bed at his residence.
The sect leader and elders of the Zhenyang Sect could no longer sit still and all went out to find the people themselves, while the manager of the Spirit Gathering Pavilion first calmed down the guests.
At first, they didn't think Elder Dan Ling had gone out.
After all, there was nothing unusual about the outer barrier, and Elder Dan Ling hadn't gone out in all these years. Even if he had gone out, given his personality, he shouldn't have left so suddenly without even saying goodbye.
Besides, Elder Dan Ling's true form is still here, untouched.
As time went by, they searched the entire city but couldn't find any trace of Elder Dan Ling. This led some to wonder if Elder Dan Ling had disappeared from the city altogether.
Some people suspected that Elder Dan Ling had returned to her original body to hibernate, since they, as the elders, were well aware that Elder Dan Ling wanted to cultivate and increase her cultivation level.
Elder Dan Ling did not form a spiritual contract with their sect, so Zhenyang Sect had no way of knowing his condition, nor could they communicate with him directly through the spiritual contract.
However, the latter suggestion was immediately rejected, because Elder Dan Ling had returned to his original form to hibernate before, but that did not affect the decrease in the concentration of pure Wood Spiritual Qi in the Spirit Gathering Pavilion. On the contrary, it was possible that because Elder Dan Ling sense was unified, the concentration of pure Wood Spiritual Qi during that period would even increase.
However, this doesn't mean it's completely impossible. After all, all sorts of things can happen during cultivation. Perhaps Elder Dan Ling's condition was truly unstable, which is why she returned to her original form and went into hibernation. However, the elders probably think this possibility is very small.
After confirming several times that no one could be found in the city, although they were not entirely convinced, they couldn't help but suspect that Elder Dan Ling might have sneaked out of the city without telling any of them.
The elders were puzzled. Over the years, neither they nor the sect's predecessors had ever taught Elder Dan Ling any Law Technique. Logically, he should be a tree spirit who knew nothing but innate supernatural Divine Ability. How did he manage to leave without disturbing the barrier?
Since things have come to this, the priority is to go out and find the person as soon as possible. We can question the others later when they return.
In the early hours of the next day, almost the entire Zhenyang Sect mobilized to search carefully for Elder Dan Ling outside the city.
When asked by others what their sect was doing, they could only say that they were on a sect mission, and dared not go into details.
After all, if the news of Elder Dan Ling's disappearance were to spread, it would be very detrimental to their Zhenyang City.
Lin Xiao had already received the twenty Spirit Stone refunded by the Spirit Gathering Pavilion along with the group of cultivators demanding a refund when the guests at the Spirit Gathering Pavilion caused trouble, and then quietly left the crowd.
He planned to go out of the city to see what was going on.
Although Zhenyang Sect did not publicly announce Elder Dan Ling's disappearance, Lin Xiao had seen all their movements, which further confirmed his guess that Qingle had successfully left Zhenyang City.
When Lin Xiao discovered that the Zhenyang Sect members were still searching within the city, he left Zhenyang City. He planned to go out and take a look. If he could meet Qingle, he would tell her about the situation in the city. If he couldn't find her, then there was nothing he could do. If he couldn't find her, then the Zhenyang Sect members probably wouldn't find her easily either.