Top-tier Unruly Master-Chapter 1601 - 1638: Teleportation Crisis

At this moment, Long Ren and many elders were fixated on the landscape painting floating in mid-air. This painting wasn’t just an ordinary landscape painting; it could reflect the situation of a few disciples entering the transmission channel. Soon, under everyone’s watchful eyes, seven dark green dots appeared in the painting.

The seven dark green dots appeared at the bottom of the landscape painting and began to move upward at a leisurely pace. Based on their speed, it would take just the time of one incense stick for them to reach the top. Long Ren and the rest knew that these seven dots represented their disciples who had entered the channel. As long as the dots reached the top, it meant that the six disciples and Elder Brother Ding Fan had successfully reached the Xuantian Secret Realm through the transmission channel.

Such transmission time is already considered long within the Cultivation World. Even for the farthest distances across the Donglai Continent, it usually takes less than a minute, but the journey to the Xuantian Secret Realm takes an entire incense stick’s time.

An incense stick’s time is at least fifteen minutes. This doesn’t simply imply the distance to the Xuantian Secret Realm is fifteen times that within the Donglai Continent. Teleportation arrays usually get faster; they start covering greater distances. In the first ten seconds, it might transmit a thousand kilometers, but in the last ten seconds of a minute, it can cover hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

Thus, one can only imagine how far the teleportation to the Xuantian Secret Realm extends in those fifteen minutes; it’s almost incalculable. It might not even be possible on any other planet. Even Long Ren and others had no idea where exactly the Xuantian Secret Realm was.

Nobody in the entire Cultivation World might know about such things.

Now, the seven light points in the landscape painting silently glimmered together. In no time, they had already traversed one-tenth of the painting’s length. The anxious hearts of Long Ren and the others gradually eased as the points progressed further.

Especially Long Ren, his anxiety surpassed everyone else’s. He wasn’t this nervous when disciples entered before, but this time was different because his elder brother Ding Fan was among them. How could he not be tense? Even though he greatly respected his elder brother’s abilities, undoubtedly, his brother’s strength was formidable among all cultivators entering the Xuantian Secret Realm.

Having his elder brother lead the team this time significantly heightened the disciples’ safety. But this was by no means a certainty because the dangers in the Xuantian Secret Realm were just too many. Regardless of a cultivator’s high cultivation, there was no guarantee of absolute safety inside.

Otherwise, the high casualty rate of exemplary cultivators under twenty-five entering the Xuantian Secret Realm wouldn’t exist.

As the tension grew within Long Ren, his eyes remained locked on the seven clustered points in the landscape painting. By now, some time had passed, and the light points had covered about half the distance. Everyone’s anxiety diminished because it seemed the disciples could reach the Xuantian Secret Realm safely with just half the distance left.

"Lake Master, it seems like Elder Brother and the others are proceeding smoothly in the transmission channel. You don’t need to worry."

The Great Elder approached Long Ren, attempting to comfort him by recognizing his tension.

Long Ren felt somewhat relieved upon hearing the Great Elder’s words. Just as he was about to respond, the entire painting suddenly started trembling violently. The landscape painting abruptly became very blurry, and the seven light points intermittently appeared and disappeared, ultimately vanishing entirely!

"What’s going on!?"

Long Ren couldn’t help but shout anxiously as everyone present gasped in surprise and panic. They hadn’t anticipated such an event. The disappearance of points in the landscape painting generally meant that the disciples were no longer in the transmission channel, implying the only possibility was that they had died within it.

"What’s going on..."

"This has never happened before! This is..."

...

Everyone present, whether Sect Masters or elders, was flustered and exchanged words of distress. They knew that the disciples entering the Xuantian Secret Realm this time were the best among the current thirty-six caves, and they represented the future of these caves. Especially now, the Sect Masters of the disciples’ sects were in shock, their hearts leaping into their throats...

Long Ren couldn’t help but feel exceptionally anxious. When everyone heard Long Ren’s roar, they became even more frantic. The elders chanting spells around the landscape painting furrowed their brows deeply. The auras surrounding these elders intensified and their spells grew louder.

After a short while, the points returned to the painting, but there were six this time, and they were no longer clustered. Seeing this, Long Ren and others were flabbergasted—they hadn’t expected a point to vanish, signifying that one of the seven cultivators had perished inside the transmission channel.

One elder among those chanting spells wore a grim expression, clearly indicating the drain chanting imposed on them. This elder spoke to Long Ren with a dejected and somewhat flustered tone:

"Report to the Lake Master, an anomaly occurred within the transmission channel, likely causing the teleportation array’s disturbance to occur prematurely, and one disciple has already perished."

Long Ren, hearing what the elder said, was stunned. They hadn’t anticipated such a development or the anomaly in the teleportation array. Despite their prowess, the Sect Masters and elders present, some at the Transcendance Tribulation Stage, had no means to address the situation because the teleportation array was beyond ordinary cultivative control. It didn’t originate from the Cultivation World, and even exceptional Formation Masters couldn’t create or manipulate it.

At this moment, Long Ren quickly asked the elder:

"Can you identify which disciple it was? Was it Elder Brother?"

The elder feebly shook his head, "We can’t determine."

Long Ren felt a wave of dismay in his heart, accompanied by extreme concern. He never imagined that his big brother and others would encounter problems even before entering the Xuantian Secret Realm, right in the Teleportation Array—it’s simply unbelievable!

At this moment, everyone felt anxious and on edge, their hearts caught in their throats, their eyes fixed on the six dots of light in the landscape painting. But to their despair, the landscape painting started vibrating again, causing those six dots to flicker in and out. After some time, when the dots finally stabilized, one of them had disappeared, leaving only five cultivators in the Teleportation Array.

"The Teleportation Array is very unstable right now, I fear the fluctuations won’t stop anytime soon..."

The elder chanting the spell remarked solemnly, his brow furrowed.

"How did this happen! That’s the future of our Thirty-six Caves, and even the Lake Master’s big brother is among them..."

"What should we do now!"

"Sigh...it’s so distressing! What to do..."

...

In an instant, all the sect masters felt like ants on a hot pan, incredibly anxious, especially hearing the elder’s words that the Teleportation Tunnel would still experience fluctuations. If all these disciples were lost, it would be a massive blow to the Thirty-six Caves.

It’s important to know that the disciples inside are absolutely outstanding, they’re the future of the Thirty-six Caves!

The most anxious of all right now is Long Ren. He never expected such a situation. Knowing his big brother is inside, if anything happens to him, his conscience would be tortured for the rest of his life. Perhaps he wouldn’t be able to continue his cultivation, as his big brother would become his greatest inner demon.

Unable to contain his anger, Long Ren shouted:

"What did you say earlier, didn’t you claim there wouldn’t be any issues with entering the secret realm early? Give me an explanation!"

Hearing the Lake Master, especially those elders previously dispatched by Long Ren to inspect the Teleportation Array, deeply lowered their heads, their expressions very grim, feeling ashamed beyond words.

Nearby, the Great Elder with a similarly pained expression, spoke to Long Ren, filled with self-reproach: 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"It’s all my fault, Lake Master. I failed to anticipate the early arrival of fluctuations in the Teleportation Array, Clear Lake Master’s punishment."

"Please, Lake Master, punish your subordinate!"

"Punish me too!"

...

The few elders following the Great Elder, bowed to Long Ren, saying they truly didn’t neglect their duties. They had repeatedly checked the Teleportation Tunnel before and indeed found it consistently unstable, especially on the designated day.

That’s why they suggested the Lake Master allow the disciples and his big brother to enter the tunnel early, but they never expected fluctuations to persist in the Teleportation Array, nor anticipated two disciples had already perished in there. They knew it was a significant issue; even if they couldn’t be entirely blamed, they couldn’t escape responsibility.

"Don’t talk to me about excuses! Quickly come up with a way to stop the fluctuations! If anything happens to my big brother, none of you will have an easy time!"

Long Ren was now utterly furious; this situation has a massive impact on the Thirty-six Caves, not lesser than the time the Wild Wolf Gang calculated against them with formations. But this time, losing the future of the Thirty-six Caves—not only Long Ren’s big brother but also carefully selected disciples—if they all die inside, it’s simply unimaginable!

Furthermore, the naturally perilous Xuantian Secret Realm has a survival rate of only fifty percent for cultivator disciples. Now two have perished, leaving five. If these five successfully pass through the Teleportation Tunnel, the survival rate in the Xuantian Secret Realm is only about two and a half people—only two can come out alive for sure!

This level of distress is unbearable! Crucially, these five are still one-third of the way from the top of the landscape painting, and according to the elder’s words, the fluctuations within the Teleportation Array haven’t ceased. So, how many can survive in the tunnel remains an unknown!

Just thinking about it is incredibly terrifying.

Upon hearing Long Ren’s reprimands, everyone’s heart was filled with bitterness. Those present remained silent, feeling extremely tense. It had been a long time since they saw the Lake Master so enraged!