On Longpan Mountain, halfway up the slope, the wild Onmyoji Onogawa Kun finally recovered his magical powers.
He looked up, extremely surprised, at the two corpses and one injured person on the ground.
"What is this?"
He had been concentrating on his meditation and hadn't noticed what had happened.
"Just now, a petty thief took advantage of the chaos to sneak attack us. He's already injured and poisoned. He shouldn't live much longer!"
"Yosh, then let's hurry!"
Onogawa Kun once again held his compass level, injecting his magical power and mental energy into it. The frantically spinning needle on the compass finally stopped, pointing in a direction.
Onogawa Kun led the way, walking towards that direction, with the members of the Black Dragon Group following closely behind him.
Kurofuji Soma now wished he could fly to the Daoist temple immediately, capture Wang Bingxia, and kill everyone there!
They had already suffered casualties; this was an inauspicious start!
Suddenly, everyone heard a strong whistling sound, and all of them became alert. However, in the dead of night, it was pitch black, and they couldn't see where the sound was coming from.
The next moment, a black shadow suddenly streaked across the sky, flying directly towards Onogawa Kun. Immediately after, the compass in Onogawa Kun's hand vanished!
That precious compass was truly gone!
"Baka!"
"Nani?"
Onogawa Kun looked at his empty hands, his entire body turning to stone. He had no idea what had happened or where his compass had gone!
Little did he know, his compass was now a hundred meters in the air, held in the talons of a magnificent sea eagle, flying further and further away!
This was no wild bird, but the sea eagle that Ling Tian had tamed.
Ling Tian, who was far away in Japan, learned from Xuanyuan Thirteen that his wife was being coveted again. After much thought, Ling Tian decided to return to Longpan Mountain to inform his family.
Also, after being away for so long, Ling Tian missed his women and his masters dearly, and was preparing to reunite with them.
Especially now that the underground forces in Japan were on edge and dared not cause trouble, it wasn't easy for Ling Tian to find fault with them. So, he decided to rest for two days. When those people relaxed their vigilance and started causing trouble again, it would be easier to deal with them.
Thus, Ling Tian controlled the sea eagle and flew for more than a day, returning to Longpan Mountain. Upon arrival, he discovered that the formation protecting Longpan Mountain had been triggered.
Ling Tian immediately summoned the sea eagle to scout the area and discovered these Japanese people.
Ling Tian's eyes immediately fell on the compass in Onogawa Kun's hand, knowing it was a good item. So, he decided to go all out and sent the sea eagle to snatch it!
This sudden turn of events left the Japanese people flustered. Without their tool, they had no way to easily break through the Maze Formation personally set up by Master Dao Yuan!
"What's wrong, Onogawa-kun? What just happened?" Kurofuji Soma asked suspiciously from the side.
"E-Enemy attack!
My magical artifact was stolen!"
"Nani? Then what do we do?"
"I... I can still cast spells to vaguely discern the general direction, but the efficiency will be much lower, and it will take a lot of time!
My suggestion is that we retreat immediately, leave this cursed place, and think of another way!"
"No, absolutely not! This mission is extremely important. We must succeed and cannot fail!"
Kurofuji Soma knew very well that the Black Dragon Group was a highly disciplined organization with clear rewards and punishments. If you completed the mission well and did things for the organization, you would receive generous rewards.
On the other hand, if the orders issued by the organization were not completed, the consequences would be very severe. At best, you would be deprived of cultivation resources and wealth, while at worst, being crippled or killed was commonplace!
Although he, Kurofuji Soma, was also a core member of the Black Dragon Group, he could not break the rules!
"Mr. Onogawa, if we retreat now, all our efforts will be in vain, and your magical artifact will be lost for nothing. My subordinates will also have died for nothing!
We are already halfway through our journey. Even if we encounter difficulties, we should grit our teeth and complete the mission!
If we can reach that damned Daoist temple, we can find a way to destroy this formation, and perhaps even get your compass back!"
"Kurofuji, that's too risky. I can't guarantee that the residual magical power in my body can support us in finding that Daoist temple. In comparison, finding our way back is much easier..."
Upon hearing this, Kurofuji Soma's expression immediately darkened.
"Onogawa-kun, don't be ungrateful. We of the Black Dragon Group hired you, so you must work for us.
You must understand that the money of the Black Dragon Group is not easily earned!"
Onogawa's face also turned very ugly upon hearing this. He was filled with anger that these people dared to threaten him.
But there was nothing he could do. After all, he was just a wild Onmyoji, the sole heir of his lineage, with no backing.
If he had been an Onmyoji of Seimei Shrine or Ise Grand Shrine, Kurofuji Soma wouldn't have dared to speak to him like this!
This trip to China had truly been a case of losing both the wife and the soldiers. Losing the compass artifact meant losing more than half of his skills; the loss was too tragic.
Just then, the members of the Black Dragon Group suddenly noticed about ten fist-sized fireballs appearing in the dark night sky. These fireballs drifted and swayed, flying directly towards them.
A member of the Black Dragon Group, carrying a samurai sword, rushed forward and swung his sword at a fireball.
"Boom!"
The fireball exploded on the spot. The fist-sized fireball suddenly expanded to two to three cubic meters, directly engulfing the unfortunate man.
A few seconds later, as the flames subsided, the man's body was covered in the smell of burning.
His face, the exposed skin, had developed severe blisters from the nearly thousand-degree heat. What was even more deadly was that his eyes had been scorched by the high temperature, and he had become blind!
At this moment, the remaining fireballs were also flying towards the members of the Black Dragon Group at no slow speed.
"Baka, scatter..."
"Boom boom..."
A series of explosions erupted within the crowd. The energy generated by the explosions even caused the surrounding space to distort slightly.
This was the energy disturbance caused by the explosion of the Burst Fire Talismans that disrupted the fluctuations of the formation. After more than ten seconds, the flames extinguished, and darkness once again enveloped the surroundings!