“Long ago, when the continents were one great and unbroken land, there was an expert at the apex of strength in the world.

“No one knew where this expert came from, nor what her agenda was. She just appeared one day as if she had sprouted from the soil itself, and then she entered the Yan Tribe.

“Back before the continents were separated, the Yan tribe was a tribe which contained all the multi-eyed experts, and their need for soul power was immense.

“Her emergence was a mystery and remained unnoticed as she then managed to excavate the Black Nebula Stone mine and informed everyone about the use of the Black Nebula Stones and the heart of the mine that could produce soul power, while the stones themselves could attract and store soul power too.

“This expert single-handedly built the Garden of Shadows and named the place. She also somehow made it possible for everyone to cultivate at a speed far surpassing the rate which they were accustomed to before.

“From then on, the Garden of Shadows was almost as important as the King’s palace; it was a holy place where all the most renowned experts of the Yan Tribe would go to cultivate like never before.

“Only those who went to the Garden of Shadows would have rapid improvements in their cultivation, and thus only the students of the Garden of Shadows would become prominent figures in society.

“Suddenly, when the continents started to shift and the world began to shake, Massive sword strikes and the dao of sword appeared everywhere, viciously tearing apart the entire world into multiple continents. The wind was furious and the oceans’ waves were so enormous and strong—they sucked or swept away each broken piece of land far apart, leaving them to become their own continents.

“As to what exactly was the reason behind the appearance of this sudden sword storm and the destruction of the continents, we never found out. Still, the sword storm was the most destructive thing we’d ever seen, and some of the slashes landed devastatingly close to our tribe. Were it not for this expert, then we would never have survived.

“This is also why you can see the sea right next to our capital. The capital is the location of the original Yan tribe, but right next to it was the cut that separated this continent from the rest.

“When we were separated, the esteemed expert managed to unite the entire continent under the rule of the Yan Tribe, and named it the ‘Yan Dalu.’

“We owe this expert so much for what she did for us, but at one point she simply vanished. It is said that she began using her powers excessively, that she was growing tired and dissatisfied. As a result, she locked herself in isolated cultivation in what we now call the forbidden area.

“Because she locked herself indoor and requested nobody disturb her cultivation, the area became a forbidden area. No one wished to interrupt her; no one wanted to cause her problems, so everyone stayed away.

“This was thousands of years ago, none of us knows whether or not she survived all this time, if she secretly left as she had arrived or if she died. Only the Headmaster and a few of the highest ranked elders enter the forbidden area from time to time, but they never say anything and we do not know if they go to pay their respects in front of the esteemed expert’s door, or if they just go to clean the area.”

“I see.” Lin Xiao was in deep thought when he smiled at the man and handed him a pill. “That legend was quite informative,” he grinned.

“It is just a legend,” one of the other experts said with indignance. If he had been just a bit faster, he would have been able to tell this legend—everyone within Yan Dalu knew this legend—but he lost the chance to get a pill because he did not think that someone would find this information useful.

“Don’t worry.” Hei Gou understood his thoughts, and he spoke up again, something he had not done a lot, “we are still interested in plenty more things, so anyone who has something interesting to tell us should stay and exchange their information for pills.”

Although they had gotten some interesting information about this forbidden area, and both of them felt that this legend had some curious implications, they could not let go of their source of information, nor could they let go of a chance to suddenly get more knowledge of this place.

“I can tell you about missing people!” someone suddenly called out. Mentioning just the kind of information they seeked most, both Lin Xiao and Hei Gou swung their heads around to look at the speaker, their eyes glistened but their expressions remained the same as before.

“Oh? People go missing?” Lin Xiao asked with feigned surprise and intrigue in his voice, “That can’t be good.”

“It is not a big secret,” the person responded. He was slightly embarrassed because this was also known to all, but he was using it to exchange for a pill, so he grit his teeth and muscled through.

“Every day around ten people will vanish on the continent. There is no limit to who vanishes, it can be commoners with two eyes each, or it can even be experts with three or four eyes. The only ones who have never vanished are the five-eyed experts.

“We don’t know where these ten experts vanish to, we have tried many different ways to examine this sudden disappearance but there are never any signs of fights, nor is there any messages left behind. They all seem to vanish into thin air, and they vanish from anywhere on the continent, so it is hard to say who is behind it.”

Lin Xiao’s brows furrowed. If it was that the ten people vanished from the same place every day, or followed some sort of pattern by vanishing in certain locations on certain days, then it would not be so difficult to track, but if they vanished from anywhere and every day, then it could not be just one person behind it.

If it was a big group of people who were behind the supposed kidnapping then it could be explained, but then it was also extremely dangerous considering how many people had gone missing. The government definitely would have an idea as to what was happening, but it seemed as if they did not, or at least they did not share this information.

Hei Gou was also deep in thought when he heard this. What made him most confused was the lack of fighting. One thing was that they vanished all over the continent, but the fact that they vanished without a trace was truly difficult to accomplish.

Lin Xiao and Hei Gou both found this information quite useful so they gave a pill to the person who had shared it.

Lin Xiao and Hei Gou glanced at one another. They felt that their heads were almost exploding with information and were unsure of what exactly they should do now.

They wanted to find Xue Wei right away and tell him about what they had heard, but the truth was that Xue Wei had entered the Soul Tower not long ago, and it was likely that he would stay there for a long time.

“Let us record what we gained today on a few jade slips,” Hei Gou said, “in case we get a lot more information and forget something later, or mix it up. We really do not know how long it will take before they come back from the Soul Tower.”

Lin Xiao nodded his head slightly. Although they were cultivators meaning they could expand their memories beyond normal and would rarely forget anything they wished to remember, they were not willing to even risk it. This was far too important.

They had already heard an outstanding amount of gossip that day, but they did not rush back to the courtyard to record the useful information before they had finished listening to everyone.

The rest of the people had mostly rumors and hearsay to share, their information was not very informative, nor as useful. Still, they generously gave out the pills and rushed back to the courtyard as soon as they were done.

Like this, the days went by. Rumors about the two strangers exchanging pills for other rumors and stories quickly spread throughout the entire academy, and Hei Gou and Lin Xiao both kept exchanging pills as their knowledge grew. They soon stretched the information requested from being only about the Garden of Shadows to everything within the capital.

They got rumors about the palace, about the different factions within the royal court, the strong families within the city and everything that was happening to them.

When they no longer had any students left who were interested in the pills that could help them break into the Ordinary Knight rank, Lin Xiao suddenly pulled out something else that made another big stir. He had pulled out some Flameward Formations.

Flameward Formations were plain and simple for Xue Wei to create, and he had spent a long time practicing them and made plenty of them in the hope of exchanging them for resources back in Chang’an when he was using the alias of Ye Xiao.

Unfortunately, circumstances had given him no more chances to exchange the formations and instead he’d had to flee. Now, however, was most likely the perfect time to bring them forth.

Although formations within Yan Dalu were much more widespread than within Chang’an, they were still considered rare. It was not that they did not have the spiritual energy needed to create formations but because the teachers guarded their methods with their lives. Formation masters had always been noble people, and back before Bai Tianyi had split the continents, the majority of the formation masters and their secrets were gathered within the City of Formations. After the world was split, many formations and their knowledge was lost throughout the continents, leaving only a select few even in Yan Dalu.

Seeing that Lin Xiao had shown a formation, everyone was once more filled with excitement and disbelief. How could these two people gather so many treasures and even gift them to others in exchange for information?

Still, Lin Xiao was more selective about the news he gained from formations. He had many pills, but not as many formations, and thus everyone did everything in their power to find information that was worthy of being exchanged for a formation.

historical

These Formations were not for their own use, many wanted them to sell them to the more prominent families or the royal family within the capital, or to send it back to their own families—depending on the family’s individual power.

Like this, Lin Xiao and Hei Gou managed to acquire their desired information quite easily. They also managed to build a good reputation so that no one wished to insult them. Everyone wanted to be friendly with them and find out where they had obtained all these treasures.

Although many people sent invitations to Lin Xiao and Hei Gou, the two friends did not accept any of them, they just declined them under the excuse that their partners were both inside the Soul Tower and that they could not make any decisions on their own.

Hearing this response, the smarter people started to understand what was happening. To be this kind of alchemist and to make such formations, one needed powerful spiritual energy, so for these two Qi cultivators who had such weak spiritual ranks, to have these meant there was definitely someone else behind them.

Hearing that they would not accept invitations before their partners from within the Soul Tower emerged, they could understand that the man or woman behind them was also a student at the academy.

Although many wished to become friendly with Lin Xiao and Hei Gou, their aim was to know who was behind them as they wanted to learn the art of inscription and the many pill formulas that they had in their hands, rather than their distributors.

Human greed was the same all over, although Xue Wei was now in Yan Dalu, the many wonderful treasures he had displayed had caused greed to appear in the eyes of many, but they dared not act on it.

Xue Wei was protected by the Garden of Shadows. No one within Yan Dalu dared to make an enemy out of this academy as it was the base of the entire continent.

Not to mention that the King was not likely to allow these famous families to act on their own. If they were making too many problems throughout the capital, then she would definitely step in.