Chapter 1811: Chaos at the Base of the Ancient Pagoda
A few hours earlier inside the reemerging ancient alchemy sect ruins in the Eastern Central Region, Chu Yang and the group of Formation Masters had wasted no time in rushing into the surrounding forest that surrounded the lake that the flying ship was hovering above. Gaining a head start compared to the rest of the wandering cultivators who had managed to escape following in their footsteps.
Because of this, they had managed to avoid the chaos when close to a hundred wandering cultivators Between the Domain Lord Realm and the Soul Ascension Realm fought their way to shore. The chaotic struggle itself drawing the attention of some of the demon beasts that had been lurking around the edges of the lake, who were more than happy to jump at the opportunity to sneak attack these wandering cultivators before they had a chance to recover from their earlier struggle in the water.
Thus began a bloody struggle for survival for the wandering cultivators who had just made it to shore, as they found themselves being attacked by demon beasts from all sides.
If not for the fact that most of these demon beasts were far weaker than them, it was rather obvious that this group of wandering cultivators would have been instantly wiped out.
However, they managed to hold on and successfully fend off the demon beasts emerging from both the forest and the water over the next fifteen minutes. Losing only a little over seven people in the process.
The problem now was that they were all in an exhausted state and couldn’t afford to try and make their way through what they now understood to be a demon beast infested forest. Forcing them to first nervously spend a few hours recovering their strength while glancing up towards the flying ship above with fear from time to time.
Only after they had managed to recover enough to ensure their own safety did these wandering cultivators finally decide to head off in search of a way out of the ancient alchemy sect ruins, they found themselves trapped inside of. Splitting off into several smaller groups for safety, as a large group would have a higher chance of attracting the attention of a more powerful demon beast, while at the same time also doing so to move in different directions.
After all, they had no idea what direction would be the correct one to lead them out of the ancient alchemy sect ruins the fastest, something Chu Yang and the group of formation masters didn’t really have to think about, as their primary goal was to find somewhere safe to hide away.
Speaking of Chu Yang and his group, during their now four-hour long journey through the forested area surrounding the lake at the base of the ancient pagoda, they didn’t run into any powerful demon beast. The few that had worried Chu Yang when he first tried to chart a safe path through the forest had become irrelevant, as they had seemingly been drawn towards the chaos that had broken out at the lake.
As for the stronger demon beasts above the Soul Ascension Realm? They didn’t seem to care much about the chaos and were seemingly scared into hiding by the flying ship still lingering above the lake.
The only real problem that they encountered were a few weaker demon beasts in the Core Formation Realm and Foundation Establishment Realm, who kept trying to ambush them without any fear.
"When is this forest going to end?" And as the forest continued along with the weaker demon beast that kept attacking them for seemingly no reason other than wanting to throw their lives away, one of the formation masters couldn’t help sighing to himself as he said the words that was on everyone’s mind after having spend so long without any indication of the forest around them coming to an end any time soon.
"No, you are asking the wrong question, you should be asking where this forest came from in the first place!"
"True... I have been spending the past three or so hundred years in the Fleeting Cloud Empire and never encountered this kind of forest before nor did I hear anything about this kind of forest. Not to mention the flying restriction. Even if this place is a forbidden region of some kind, we should at least have heard something about it before..."
"In my opinion, I’m fine with being stuck wandering this forest as long as we continue only encountering these weaker demon beasts."
In response to the sigh of the first, three other formation masters jumped forward to break the silence that had fallen over the group since they had stepped inside the forest. Soon enough, causing the remaining four to join in on the conversation, as all seven of the formation master to start discussing their current situation with each other.
In the end, Chu Yang also decided to join in on the conversation, as they all began trying to guess how such a large forest had suddenly appeared seemingly out of the blue along with what they had learnt so far to be the ancient ruins of a massive sect that essentially spanned most of the Fleeting Cloud Empire’s territory.
And as another hour flew by without them encountering any real challenges, they concluded their discussion about the sudden emergence of the ancient sect with the belief that the secret realm that originally held the ancient alchemy sect had somehow crashed into or more accurately merged with the part of the continent that was the Fleeting Cloud Empire’s territory through some technique, formation or other mystical method that was beyond their comprehension.
As fantastical as this sounded to most of the group, one of the older formation masters had apparently read about situations like that having once been more common in the past, as most ancient sect ruins seemed to appear in the world through a similar process, just that the occurrence of a new ancient sect merging with the continent and reappearing had become extremely rare over the years as there wasn’t an unlimited number of ancient sect ruins in hiding around the continent.