Everyone’s spirits lifted, and they quickened their pace toward the front.
Passing a giant stone that laid across the path, the originally winding valley became straight, while the cliffs on both sides rose steeply into the clouds. Standing in the narrow valley and looking upward, one could see a sliver of sky.
At that moment, large and small fragments of rock were piled up in the valley, and on the cliffsides, several fissures were also evident. It wasn’t hard to tell from the sharp-edged stones and the moist dirt that these fissures had not formed long ago.
Mu Hanyan’s mind stirred, recalling Wu Qiuyun’s words that the ancestors of the Wu Family and the Qu family had discovered the ancient palace after passing through the cliff fissures, triggering the collapse of the sealed rocks and resealing the fissures. Now that these cliffs had cracked open again, could there be a connection?
Mu Hanyan looked towards Qu Fengting and keenly noticed the excitement he was desperately trying to hide.
"No road is impassable; although the barrier of the Exotic Beast Valley had an unexpected issue, one of these newly appeared cliff fissures could very well be an ancient hidden pathway left by our predecessors. Let’s hurry and search while we have the time," Qu Fengting said, feigning composure, and then took the lead in climbing towards the nearest fissure.
The others followed him one by one; no one knew where the mysteriously vanished Exotic Beasts were hiding, so no one wanted to act alone.
Mu Hanyan and his companions exchanged glances and also followed from a distance.
The inside of the fissure was spacious but even darker, with occasional rocks falling from above. Of course, this posed little threat to the young elite Swordsmen.
"Brother Han Yan, look," Mu Cheng suddenly said to Mu Hanyan as they were about to enter the fissure.
Following his gaze, Mu Hanyan saw a depression about a foot wide on the cliff face. While it was normal for the uneven cliff to have some depressions, upon closer observation, Mu Hanyan noticed something unusual. The depression narrowed from wide to thin and had traces of palm-sized scales on it. His eyes scanned the surroundings, and soon, Mu Hanyan found a piece of Beast Armor Scale in a small fissure nearby. For original chapters go to novel⸺fire.net
If he wasn’t mistaken, this was a trace left by a powerful Exotic Beast python crashing into the cliff.
With this discovery, Mu Hanyan examined the scene more carefully. The unremarkable undulations of the cliff seemed increasingly like marks made by the paws of bears or tigers.
Could it be that the mysterious disappearance of the Exotic Beasts was due to them reaching this cliff and breaking open the age-old sealed fissures with their full force?
"Everyone be careful, and leave immediately if anything seems amiss," Mu Hanyan instructed, alert and cautious, while also reminding Mu Cheng and Wu Qiuyun.
Hundreds of Swordsmen, hands on their sword hilts, cautiously moved forward, following Qu Fengting. They all held their breath, fully focused and ready to act at any moment.
However, after walking several miles, they encountered no Exotic Beasts.
"Stop, we’ve reached the end," Qu Fengling’s voice came, and everyone halted their steps, disappointment written on their faces.
"Don’t lose heart. The hidden pathway is most likely within one of these fissures. We’ll search them one by one, and we’ll find it," Qu Fengling said, encouraging everyone with the faint light he saw on their faces.
"Alliance Leader is right. We’ll find the hidden pathway if we search one by one. Let’s all head back out," Mu Feng followed up, boosting morale. Mu Hanyan smirked behind them; Mu Feng was really quite the considerate one.
Hearing their words, everyone seemed to regain some spirit and turned to walk out.
"Red Cloud Stone, this is Red Cloud Stone!" Suddenly, someone exclaimed with surprise and joy.