"Those 'holy lands' the so-called saviors of the continent only acted when those invaders had made significant inroads to the continent.

Yes, back then countless sects, clans, empires, kingdoms, and other factions had fallen to each other's hands, but others had fallen to the invaders who destroyed them root and stem while pillaging them.

Countless legacies missing today are in their hands. The two holy lands only stepped in when the other big players of those continents walked in and set their sights on them, but by that time, the damage done by those invaders was already extensive, and the little scuffle after between the holy land and them, only added to it.

Though Gu Lao couldn't have expected the gut feeling he had was a continent-wide war, that even managed to draw in foreign forces, his feeling was right on the mark. I think it may have ties to how sacred flame swans come to be, with their ties being in the origin dao, they're sensitive to certain changes even if they can't make clear sense of them, especially dangerous ones.

It is how they have been able to keep themselves alive for so long, despite being actively coveted all over the world.

You are right, Miss Gu Xing's feelings, cannot be ignored.." solemnly said Jiang Cheng.

"Enlai, you'll have to inform the spirit council..Elder Han Guo will have to be appraised of this so he can keep a close watch on them as he lays down the framework of the array there.." added Jiang Cheng."Ideally it would have been easier if we had the special inquisitors permanently stationed there.." said Jia Bohai with a sigh.

"It can't be helped with how many fires they are sent to around the continent, they can hardly keep up as is to the point that the gold eagle guards have to deployed along with them.." said Long Enlai with a stern consternation.

"If someone from there is plotting something, it means they have the confidence of hiding their tracks, even from us. I doubt karma deduction will work but with the manpower shortage we could try and see if we could glean anything from it.." said Xu Biya.

"I don't know if this will help, but Gu Xing did give me something. It's an account of one of the spirit beasts that may have had contact with the figure. Maybe the description he gave could help .." Yang Qing said as he took out the urn of echoes of legacies.

He poured a bit of his qi into the urn and activated it releasing the voice of the lunar fury crane that had fought against the eerie figure about 38,000 years ago.

As the recording was playing the four seniors all had furtive looks on their faces as they tried to pick something from the clues provided.

It was only after the recording had finished playing did they voice out their thoughts.

"A glance that can erode the mind of a spirit beast that was in the palace stage and one skilled in soul attacks at that. It could be a powerful soul art, or a bloodline technique, or some artifact..."

"Mmh, I think so too. When it comes to soul arts, the eye of the dark gulf of nightmares comes to mind. Those who master it are capable of eroding the minds of cultivators who are in the same realm. It's one of the few arts I know that is capable of working even against an early-stage soul formation expert..."

"I don't know, while the art is indeed capable of such a feat, don't forget its stringent requirements. The creators of the art, the Stygian Purgatory Sect had an elder in the peak stage of the domain realm succumb to madness when he tried to cultivate it to perfection. He wrecked the sect, and killed a lot of disciples and elders before he was finally stopped, and even then he couldn't regain his mind and had to be killed.

While it is likely that the copies of that art might still be in circulation despite the destruction of the sect itself and leading organizations going to extensive lengths to destroy traces of that art, the dangers and stringent requirements of cultivating the art are still there.

Its risks aside, it was still a top-tier gold-grade art that was already touching the domain of purple-grade art, and unlike other gold-grade arts, the failure of cultivating this one is having your soul consumed by the art itself. They would need a powerful pure yin treasure that is at the very least at the ascendant grade to even begin to attempt learning it, let alone successfully cultivating and executing it.

If the figure was capable ofpassing those hurdles, there is no way the lunar fury crane would have lived to tell the tale.."

"Makes sense. What about dark entropy distortion gaze, wail of the damned art, dreadbane art, aeon blight essence art, soul dessecation mutterings art..."

"Let's not forget physiques too. The nocturne echo soul physique, the hollow shadow will devouring physique, the oblivion veil soulbane physique, the cimmerian light reaping physique to name a few, are also able to cause the same effects.."

"We also need to consider acquired physiques. There are spirit beasts with those attributes which could be passed down by one who has made a contract with them.

Duoji the harbinger of fiery disasters the red-eyed white-tailed wolf comes to mind. Then there is also the dark ember sparrow, the grim whispering snake, the Gudiao that human baby shrieking condor, Chongming Niao the double-irised vulture of destruction, the malediction void raptor...

While the voice helps narrow down what to look for, the list is still ultimately too big.."

"We can only pull that thread, see where it leads for now with the special inquisitors digging on the Blue Soul Flame Syndicate route, maybe that figure and them have overlapping history. We could try and find a nexus there.."

The discussion among the four seniors went on for a while before finally they regained their senses. Yang Qing couldn't help but admire the breadth of their wisdom and experience. They had discussed over a thousand different scenarios, bouncing ideas and probabilities off each other, sieving down through them, slowly creating a guiding path.

Yang Qing could only make sense of about a third of what they were discussing. When he went back, he decided he would focus on that a third along with any ideas he may come up with.