They used this system because sometimes a cultivator who sensed the aura might not report it.
Maybe the Witch Spawn had taken a family member hostage. Or maybe the cultivator was killed before they could say anything.
This way, the device would still send the location automatically, no matter what happened.
Ahmose's eyes narrowed. That could only mean one thing. They had found the Witch Spawn.
"Where?" she asked, her voice low and tense.
"He's dead," the leader said grimly, pointing toward the corpse. The young man lay with his eyes wide open as blood streamed from his mouth and eyes.
The upper half of his body had been chopped apart, his organs spilled out, and the lower half was missing. A blood trail led to a rundown building's underground passage.
Ahmose Tiaa spread her spiritual perception, covering the surrounding buildings and areas within several hundred meters. She discovered that in the underground passage, thousands of ki stones were piled up.
Several figures were there, and she also detected the aura she was looking for. Her eyes narrowed as her mind raced. She had checked with her spiritual perception that there was only one way in and out of that ruined building.
"Senior Sister, should we go?" the leader asked.
"He's cornered. We can't let him escape or delay. This might be our best chance.".
He was an Element Master Realm cultivator, second in strength only to Ahmose Tiaa, who was in the Sentinel Realm. The other three members were at the peak of Element Disciple Realm.
"Master Mu said the Witch Spawn's cultivation dropped to Element Master Realm after being seriously injured," the leader continued. "With you here, five of us should be enough."
Ahmose Tiaa knew this, but she somehow felt uneasy about the situation. She couldn't wait for her master to arrive or for others to aid them.
It could give their target a chance to escape. It could also be a trap, as that Witch Spawn was known to leave fake trails using his methods. This could be another false trail leading them into a trap, but it could also be an opportunity to catch the Witch Spawn or gather some hints and information about him.
They entered the ruined building and began climbing down through the narrow stone stairs. The air grew colder and thicker with each step.
"Be careful and stay cautious," Ahmose Tiaa whispered to her companions. "This could still be a trap."
The others nodded silently as they proceeded forward, their footsteps echoing softly in the darkness.
Soon, they spotted several men standing at a distance in the underground passage. The figures suddenly put something in their mouths and swallowed.
Immediately, their eyes turned blood red, and spider-like cracks began appearing around their eye sockets, spreading across their faces like a web of veins.
Ahmose Tiaa and her party had already been using their spiritual perception to observe their surroundings. In the darkness, their spiritual perception served as their primary method to see and sense everything around them.
When they witnessed this horrifying transformation, they instantly became alert.
The red-eyed cultivators suddenly rushed at them with inhuman speed, moving like wild beasts.
All five of them were in the Ki Warrior Realm, but their movements were more savage and unpredictable than normal cultivators.
They dashed forward with clawed hands, aiming to tear apart Ahmose Tiaa's party.
However, Ahmose Tiaa's group wasn't an average cultivator party. They were experienced and methodical fighters who quickly assessed their opponents and prepared to deal with them efficiently.
They quickly noticed that the red-eyed cultivators were far stronger than their cultivation realm should allow, their power enhanced by whatever method they were using.
The team leader stepped forward to handle two of them. Raising his hand with practiced precision, two wind blades appeared, condensing into sharp and deadly projectiles.
With a swift gesture, he aimed the wind blades and launched them in a straight line at the two incoming red-eyed cultivators.
The blades hit their targets with perfect accuracy, severing their heads cleanly from their shoulders.
The remaining three red-eyed attackers were handled by the other three male cultivators.
As they entered, they saw thousands of ki stones piled up, and a man was standing behind them. He had a smile and blue eyes as he looked at Ahmose Tiaa and her group.
The leader couldn't help but feel relieved seeing that they had captured the target. "You have nowhere to run."
Other members of the team already took action and started to circle him. Suddenly, the pile of ki stones where they were stacked began to glow.
Lines on the ground lit up, forming a faint pattern beneath the stones. Alarm bells went off in everyone's minds. They all stepped back.
"Who said I am running?" the man said as he raised his palm. There was a small rice-sized squirming insect in it.
"Gu!" the cultivators couldn't help but say in unison, as they knew about the gu.
He simply closed his fist, crushing the squirming gu. Then the shining lines that lit up under the pile of ki stones began to glow brighter.
They didn't understand what he was doing at first. But as the glowing lines beneath the ki stones brightened and the pile began to shine, a growing sense of dread settled over them.
"You were quick, but you still underestimated master. Now you will receive the punishment of my master," said the man who crushed the gu.
"What's he talking about?"
"Is he saying that he is a fake one and he lured us here to trap and kill us?"
"But maybe he's using the ki stones to activate a teleportation array. Look they're starting to glow. He might just be stalling to make his escape."
They couldn't help but think of it, as all of them could still feel his aura which was similar to the target Witch Spawn.
So they just couldn't get out of here and leave him, as he would get a chance to escape through teleportation.
The leader with wind element raised his hand, formed a wind blade, condensed it sharp, and launched it at the man.
The wind blade sliced through the man at breakneck speed. His head fell to the ground as a shower of blood sprayed out from his headless body.
All of them stared in disbelief, wondering if they had actually finished the Witch Spawn they had been hunting for many years.
"Did we just kill the Witch Spawn?"
"Did we?"
Ahmose Tiaa felt her instincts flaring when she saw the ki stones starting to shine more brightly. She felt something was wrong as she looked at the headless body, remembering his words.
"We have to leave from here immediately—"
Just as her sentence was about to be completed, there was an intense blinding light.
BOOM!
A bright light exploded from underground.
Fire shot through the passage, burning everything in its path. The ground shook hard. The force of the blast sent flames blasting out of the exit and high into the sky.
The shockwave hit a moment later. Nearby walls cracked. Windows shattered. Dust and rocks flew through the air.
When the light faded, there was only a black hole in the ground… and silence.
.
.
.
At the same time, in the City Lord's mansion...
A man was laughing and drinking with City Lord Ru Shi, Ye Clan patriarch Ye Tian, and the principal of Azure Sky Academy.
"So are you feeling better?" the Azure Sky Academy principal asked the man, glancing at Ye Tian before turning his attention back to the blue-robed figure.
"I heard you were running late because your old injury flared up again. Thought you might miss your friend's son's coming-of-age ceremony."
"Miss this? Never," the blue-robed man grinned. "He's like a nephew to me. I wouldn't dare skip it."
They all shared a laugh.
Then the blue-robed man's expression suddenly changed.
His smile vanished. Reaching into his robe, he withdrew three gu insects.
Two lay motionless—already dead.
The third one twitched weakly in his palm before going still.
Looking down at the dead gu insects, a slow smile spread across his face. His gaze shifted toward City Lord Ru Shi.
"Begin the game."
Ru Shi immediately rose from his seat and bowed deeply. "Yes, Master."
Both Ye Tian and Principal Feng stared in bewilderment. This strange formality between four old friends made no sense.
"Master? Why are you calling him master?" Principal Feng asked, studying Ru Shi's face.
They were all supposed to be equals here, longtime friends. Seeing one of them bow and use such formal address felt completely out of place.
"Because he is my master," Ru Shi answered simply.
The response only made Ye Tian and Principal Feng burst into laughter.
"Brother Feng, if you want to know why, then come closer. It's a secret I will tell you."
Principal Feng found himself leaning forward despite his better judgment. His curiosity had gotten the better of him.
He wondered if City Lord Ru Shi had accidentally revealed something embarrassing and now his friend was teasing him by making him call him "master" as a joke.