Chapter 773: The Mysterious Man in Black Robes

As Ye Feng had predicted, a great battle was about to begin…
At first, some minor disturbances in the outer regions made Ye Feng suspicious—perhaps some major event had occurred there, causing the people in the Meteor River to become restless.
Of course, this sign also served as a warning to everyone. Zhenwu even immediately reported the situation to Tian Dao’s external avatar, but the reply was that Tian Dao still hadn’t made any breakthroughs.
This dropped Ye Feng and the others’ spirits—despite having so many powerful beings with level-1000 divine powers, they were clearly not on the same level as those who had condensed a higher plane within them. Having a higher plane meant having the strength to completely destroy it.
While Ye Feng and his group possessed level-1000 divine powers, their attacks could at most destroy just a portion of such a plane. Those who truly possessed a higher plane within them could crush it with their bare hands.
Ye Feng knew this because he himself had a higher primary plane within him; he was well aware that his group’s strength was sufficient to crush a higher primary plane with just one hand.
In other words, even those with level-1000 divine powers were nothing but ants in the face of those who had condensed a higher plane within them.
Thus, he didn’t want the disturbances in the outer regions to be caused by Shi Xuan of the Devouring Clan emerging from seclusion.
In the following days, strange news came from the Meteor River—every member of the Devouring Clan had disappeared. Not a single person remained in the river…
“What exactly happened?” To investigate thoroughly, Ye Feng even went directly to the core area of the Meteor River, capturing the leaders and acting leaders of the Divine Eye Clan, Blood Demon Clan, and several other clans, and having Pearl interrogate them one by one.
The results of the interrogations showed that no one knew what had happened. But they all said that a few days earlier, there had been rumors that the second elder, Shi Xuan, was about to emerge from seclusion…
This news was undoubtedly the last thing Ye Feng and the others wanted to hear.
He led Luo Yan and other powerful beings with a divine power integration level of 1000 to the Meteor River and launched a large-scale search. The result was that not a single member of the Devouring Clan was found.
Months passed, and the outer region faction completely disappeared, with even other clans becoming rare. Meanwhile, powerful beings from the human faction also began to vanish from time to time.

The three highly skilled fighters sent out by Zhenwu to gather information never gave any news after leaving, which made the human faction realize something was unusual.
“Are they plotting some scheme?” The Sword Emperor looked grave; this was the first time such a situation had occurred.
“That’s possible,” Zhenwu nodded in agreement.
“My intuition tells me it’s not a scheme, but rather something has appeared in the Meteor River,” Immortal offered a different opinion.
This time, Jinwen nodded. “I feel the same way—like there’s a venomous snake hiding in the shadows, waiting for its prey. I’ve been feeling as if someone is spying on us these past few days.”
“I feel the same,” Bai Yiyi, whose soul had mutated, also nodded. The spying was extremely subtle; I even thought it was just my imagination.
Hearing this, everyone frowned. As the supreme beings among beasts, Chaos Magical Beasts naturally possessed a powerful early-warning mechanism, allowing them to survive for countless eras and remain rulers to this day. If even these soul-mutated beasts had similar sensations, then such intuition was likely to reflect the truth.
“In that case, we’ll sweep through this Meteor River once a day. With Ye Feng and the others here, we can instantly eliminate any foreign demons we encounter,” Zhenwu immediately arranged a thorough search.
Everyone started acting right away, but only those with a divine power integration level of 300 or above were allowed to participate; even Immortal wasn’t eligible, which left him somewhat frustrated.
In fact, aside from Ye Feng and the others, only the Sword Emperor and Zhenwu met the requirements to join the search team.
Ye Feng and the others dispersed in all directions to begin a large-scale search, covering not only the core area but also both the inner and outer regions.
Ye Feng flew forward rapidly, unleashing his soul power to gather information from the entire search area. Suddenly, a buzzing noise came from the communication stone.
Ye Feng picked up the stone and shouted, “What’s going on? Is everyone there? Reply if you’re here!”
Luo Yan and the others responded one by one, as did Zhenwu, but there was no reply from the Sword Emperor.
Ye Feng was alarmed. “Elder Sword Emperor? Are you there?”
Still no response. This made Ye Feng realize that something must have happened to the Sword Emperor.

“Everyone, retreat! Jinwen and I will head to where Sword Emperor is.” Ye Feng made an immediate decision and ordered the others to withdraw.
“I’ll go too!” Zhenwu said in a cold tone. Sword Emperor had been his close friend for years, and he wasn’t willing to stay idle now that something had happened to him.
“Senior Zhenwu, if the attacker could kill Sword Emperor before he could even call for help, they must be at least as strong as the Demon Devourer. The human camp needs strong fighters on site; we can handle the rest. Once we catch the killer, we’ll leave it to you to deal with them,” Ye Feng persuaded.
After a long silence, Zhenwu sighed deeply. “Alright, we must catch the killer.”
“Mm, we’ll pursue them with all our might!” Ye Feng nodded in agreement.
In just a short while, Ye Feng and Jinwen rejoined each other. Ye Feng had brought Jinwen along because he was an expert tracker, unmatched in both sense of smell and sensitivity.
Luo Yan, Zhenwu, and the others finally returned to the human camp and reported that they were safe.
Jinwen flew with Ye Feng. After about the time it took to drink a cup of tea, they finally found a pool of blood, but no body. Neither the storage ring nor Sword Emperor’s sword, which he never left his side, was there.
Jinwen stretched out two fingers, dipped them into the blood, and brought them to his nose to smell it. Then he nodded at Ye Feng. “It seems to be Sword Emperor’s blood. His aura remains in it. But strangely, aside from this pool of blood, there’s no trace of energy fluctuations in the vicinity. If the attacker used a soul attack, there should be some soul fragments scattered around, even if they’re extremely small. But there isn’t a single one…”
Ye Feng frowned. “There’s only one explanation—the attacker belongs to the Devouring Clan. Everything was completely devoured, leaving no energy or soul fragments behind.”
“Even so, why leave a pool of blood? To help us determine the location and identity of the victim?” Jinwen found this incomprehensible.
“He did it on purpose, leaving traces to show this is his game. It also shows he’s confident and unafraid of us.” Ye Feng’s voice echoed in the air as his gaze swept around. The white crystal on his forehead reappeared, infused with a level-1,000 divine power based on soul mastery. The white crystal suddenly emitted a light barrier and began scanning the surroundings.

It was also during the long process of adaptation that Ye Feng discovered this function of the Eye of Divine Punishment. The soul-probing effect emitted by the Eye of Divine Punishment could be doubled.

A moment later, right where the Eye of Divine Punishment was about to scan, a dark shadow suddenly shot out.

“Chase!” Ye Feng immediately shouted, and he and Jin Wen pursued from two different directions.

During the chase, the Imperial Demon Vine transformed into hundreds of chains, carrying a level-1000 water-based sealing technique, and stretched toward the opponent.

Seeing this, Jin Wen did the same, using the imperial-grade Demon Vine, which was a forbidden treasure in his body, to form chains as well, extending them with a level-1000 water-based sealing technique.

“Leave him for me!” With Ye Feng’s fierce shout, the chains finally caught up with the opponent and wrapped around him.

The opponent’s speed slowed down. He exerted force with his trapped foot, causing the chains to shatter piece by piece. Although it was only for a brief moment, Jin Wen’s forbidden-treasure-grade chains still managed to entangle one of the opponent’s feet. The opponent tried to repeat his tactic, but the forbidden treasure remained intact. Only then did he stop fleeing and turn around.

His black cloak, along with the wide hat, covered his face. Strangely, though he turned around, he did not attack; he simply stood there quietly.

On his left leg, pulled by the chains, the imperial-grade Imperial Demon Vine could no longer move forward, as if blocked by some strange force.

“Who are you?” Ye Feng held his forbidden-treasure long sword and twisted it forcefully, aiming at the opponent’s head. The opponent immediately raised his hand to block it, lifting the sword upward.

With a “ding” sound, the long sword deviated slightly to Ye Feng’s surprise, but its sword energy still shattered half of the hat on the cloak.

The face of the man in the black robe was finally revealed.

Seeing the familiar yet somewhat strange face beneath the black robe, Ye Feng was stunned. “Brother Long?!”