"A cultivator passed through this realm's spatial barrier? They've already reached me, so why didn't the old demon or the Dao Academy patriarch warn me through Thought Transmission?"
As the curtain of water and mist suddenly descended, the Confluence Faction cultivator felt a flicker of doubt.
He stood at the heart of this perilous space. There was no passage into or out of this place; an outside cultivator could not simply cross the spatial barrier and arrive here.
The old demon and the Dao Academy patriarch were fighting at opposite ends of the space, one above and one below. Surely they would have sensed an intruder the moment one entered.
So how had this person penetrated so deep, even cast Water Path Sorcery over the mining grounds, without him receiving any word?
The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment's thoughts raced. As he searched for the water-path cultivator, he sent a Thought Transmission to the other two. "What's going on? Why has an outsider reached the mining grounds? What's happening on your end? How many came? What's their cultivation?"
He fired off five questions in a row. They sank like stones into the sea, drawing no reply.
The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment realized something was wrong.
The three of them had once been one mind and one body, their souls extraordinarily attuned. A Thought Transmission between them should never fail, let alone suffer the slightest delay.
If his message went unanswered now, there was only one explanation: someone had used a technique to sever their link.
"To think there's a method like that... The Dao Academy's and Meishan's prodigies are already inside this perilous land. Of the Secret Realm cultivators still outside, only someone from the Yang Clan could manage it."
The Upper Cultivator Soul Fragment quickly drew his conclusion. Looking at