"Just how fast did that bastard run? Even coming across dozens of miles. I still could not find him."

Thessa hissed through her serpentine tongue, looking around the forest. There was not even a single hint of that wolf.

"Shit! I’ll be dead if he finds out I failed the very first mission he gave me."

But just as she was about to move, her eyes blurred, and she dropped onto the ground...unconscious.

Half an hour earlier...

"That bastard is way too strong! I have to inform the Dragon Princess!"

The wolf-blood had run as soon as he had seen the end of Reth...obliteration.

There’s no way he could stay there, so he had run the moment his instincts had tingled.

He crossed a dozen miles in no time and finally stopped to take a break. Looking around, he slowly sat down once he confirmed there was no one.

"Phew, this was one hectic journey. Ah, I just feel bad for Reth. The poor guy died for nothing."

"You can join him soon."

A chill ran down his spine when he heard those words. He hurriedly looked around. But to his horror, there was not even a single entity here.

SNAP!

Just as he was about to dash away from his spot. A slender hand grabbed his neck out of nowhere and twisted it violently.

The wolf-blood immediately dropped dead and rolled on the ground. A pair of cold eyes watched him for a second.

They were golden, they were shining so brightly that even the sun refused to look directly into those eyes. She had white hair flowing down her waist.

She was tall and possessed a near-perfect body. Her golden eyes began to shine intensely as a deep red shade flickered within them.

"I can feel his aura. He is...nearby"

The woman muttered; just her heavenly voice was enough to put even the Celestial Spirit to shame.

But suddenly she halted, her nose twitched. Looking ahead, she saw a woman heading towards them.

The moment she saw the figure...or specifically inside the figure. Her expression twisted violently.

"Why...why does she have his aura on her?"

Her eyes blurred into an almost red world when she saw this scene.

"Should I kill her here right now? No...my beloved seems to have some use for this lowly...creature."

Her heart thundered in her chest hard as she continued to stare at the woman intensely. The poor Serpent blood couldn’t even bear the gaze of one of the apex predators and...fainted on the spot.

"He...does not need any women near him. I...alone am enough"

Her breath quickened as she began sniffing his aura...from dozens of miles away.

"I...have to see him."

Unknown to the present cultivators, a far more horrifying entity was lurking in the shadows. One wrong step and even death would feel merciful.

...

The ignition of the formation was not subtle or low. The light that exploded from the crystal formation’s base became visible throughout the camps.

Gorven and Dresh’s expressions changed drastically when they saw this.

"W-What is the meaning of this?" Gorven almost stumbled when he saw this. Their Crystal Stone Formation...was no longer present.

It seemed to have collapsed inwardly or...

"Someone has broken the formation and entered inside!"

Dresh said, panic evident in her voice. She snapped her head at Gorven, intending to blame him. But...as soon as she saw his expression. She...stopped.

That man had the same expression as her currently, so obviously, even he didn’t know anything.

Both of the camps below stopped fighting; it wasn’t by collective decision. It was a response, the reactions of Verth practitioners whose Verth-sensitive bodies registered a massive energy shift and demanded their attention.

"Dresh! What is the meaning of this!?"

Gorven, of course, wasn’t in his right mind right now. And he didn’t have the calmness of an Elf. So he immediately blamed Dresh.

"You old fool, stop wasting my and your time. We both know someone has...cracked the formation."

Dresh’s wind Verth snapped and, like a tide, swept across the entire camp and the formation. For a second, she stood still.

"...Two people entered the crystal. And my suspicions were indeed true, there was a concealment formation hidden beneath the main one...which leads to somewhere else entirely."

Dresh concluded that her mind was working overtime.

Gorven’s figure flickered as pure rage spread across his face.

"WHO ARE THOSE BASTARDS!?"

"I don’t know..."

Her eyes swept across each and every body present on the battlefield. Scanning their bodies and their Verth signatures.

"Who is missing?"

She frowned, then the confusion gave way to realization.

"T-That information broker and three other entries!"

A heavy aura snapped out of her body, as several veins popped on her forehead.

"That bastard! It was a setup all along! Dammit!"

Thinking about the Cipher message and the Dragon Clan affiliate and all the carefully constructed intelligence that had brought them to the meeting...this fight.

While they were all fighting and cursing, two people had slipped through the chaos and made their way towards the formation.

"What?" Gorven tilted his head in confusion when he heard those words. "What setup?"

"The...information. The Cipher message and the Dragon Clan affiliate."

Her eyes went cold when she spoke of that, "All of it, someone fed both of us the same story from different directions, and while we were busy verifying it...against each other. Those bastards had basically gained a free pass to the Neutral Zone and even opened...something even I don’t know."

Gorven stared at her incredulously, then he slowly turned around to look at his camp. Then at the Neutral Zone.

His eyes gradually widened, "This wolf-blooded scout from the eastern rotation. He...is missing."

Dresh gritted her teeth in rage, "Let’s go and work towards the formation first. Who knows what will be hidden down there?"

"Alright"

Gorven agreed and, under the astonished eyes of the Verth practitioners below, the two leaders, who were at each other’s throats just a few moments ago...were now flying together towards the Crystal Formation.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to arrive at the location of the Verth Formation, or it could even be called such.

Where previously there had been a massive, glowing formation and a crystal at the centre, now there was nothing.

The crystal had stopped glowing, as if all of its energy had been drained away, and the formation itself had dimmed and died.

"T-This! We can no longer enter the formation!"