At the same time that the teen entered the trance, at the location where Zong Jun found the bodies of the archers, a small tremor shook the ground. After it passed, a crack was revealed and from it, three people emerged.

"Now we should be safe. All your senses and qi were suppressed while inside the Earth Crab Hidden Shell, are you feeling well?" Asked the one who emerged first, which was surprisingly the old man that was driving the cart and later died while fighting the ambushers, Elder Chen.

Right now, if not for his face, nobody would recognize him. Standing tall and with his back straight, his plain gray clothes turned into a flowing white robe, his aura, now full of power, of a power that felt far superior to when he was fighting the ambushers near the cart and his eyes now contained a deep light of wisdom.

"I am feeling well, thank you, Palace Master Chen." Answered a man that looked in his forties, was about five and a half foot tall, with a stocky build, brown hair, and a good-looking face that gave the feeling of someone easy to befriend. He was dressed in a slightly decorated leather robe, pants, and boots, that were commonly seen in the wildlands. In his hands, he held a short ax, that had a slight qi fluctuation around it, a sure sign of it being a Spirit Weapon.

This man was surnamed Shu, and according to the information that the ambushers had, he was injured and a simple middle-stage Spirit cultivator. But seemingly it was all wrong, as he had no visible injuries, while the aura around him indicated that he was at least an early-stage Soul expert.

The man turned around to look at the third person that emerged from underground, a boy clad in the same type of clothes and that was also in the cart before and asked

"And you Min'er? How do you feel?"

"I am well father, Palace Master Chen." The boy answered, but it was seen from his pale complexion that he was putting up a brave front. In reality, he was scared of all that happened before, and the glance that he shot at Elder Chen showed awe and admiration.

"Hahaha, don't worry boy, you can call me Elder Chen as before, after all, until you enter the Sect, I am just an old man." Said Master Chen, from the Wisdom Palace of the Three Hills Sect with a smile. Then his expression turned serious and he spoke to the boy's father

"Shu Qiang, the situation seems to be worse than we thought. I never expected that you would be ambushed by the Flowing Leaves City, and I doubt it was an order from their City Lord. We need to make haste and arrive at Boundary Hill City, reunite with the people I left there, and make them accompany you two to the Sect. Your talks with the Clans were successful, but it seems that not everyone wants us to form ties with the wildlands."

"You are right, Palace Master, but I doubt that they knew what the talks were about, in the opposite case, they would have sent an army of experts, and not just some soldiers accompanied by a sole advanced Soul stage." Answered the middle-aged man, Shu Qiang.

"If they knew that the wildings discovered a pocket realm that will open for the first time a year later, all of the island powers would be here to either ambush or press us to reveal the date and location of the opening" Answered the Palace Master Chen.

"Mmm, you probably are right. So what should we do now?"

"I will send a glyph to the Head, accompany you to the City, and then investigate to see if I can track the attackers" And a brief pause later, he added "While I compose the message, let's start moving from here."

The group of three started slowly moving, and after a while, a small rock left the hands of the Pavilion Master and flew to the south, this was the form of the message glyphs adopted by the Three Hills Sect. After sending the message, he and Shu Qiang, who grabbed his son, both activated their movement techniques, quickly moving south.

After a brief moment, they passed the ambush spot but continued without stopping. However, an observant person could notice the surprised expression that flashed on the Master's face when he noticed that one of the bodies was missing.

In less than two hours, they reached the Boundary Hill City, which was known as the Half Island Bastion before and during the war between the Islands that happened eighty-nine years in the past. The city was not very big, encompassing an area of two square miles, but it was surrounded by enormous, almost two hundred feet tall walls made from a polished, green-colored stone.

The road continued and entered the city through a small double gate, only 20 feet tall and wide, this was the North Gate and although it was very small compared to the walls or even the other gates, it was built like this for defensiveness, after all, the Boundary Road was the only possible access from the north into the three hills territory, and the shield that protected it during the Islands War.

Reaching the city, they dispersed their movement techniques, and Shu Qiang lowered his son to the ground as they walked intending to enter the city. At both the outer and inner gates, Palace Master Chen flashed a silver badge with the emblem of the Three Hills, and the guards let them pass without any inspections or questions. While they were passing under the wall, the boy, Shu Min gasped in surprise

"This wall, it is enormous!"

"It has fifty feet of thickness, and originally was two hundred feet of height. But because of the passage of time, it has already sunk three or four feet into the ground." Said the boy's father.

After entering, they didn't stop and continued walking towards a square tower made from the same stone as the wall, that stood a hundred feet from the wall, and from which the city buildings started. The main street was paved with vein-patterned white stones, and most of the buildings located to both sides were three stories high, with the first floor built of similar stone, the upper ones were built of different types of wood, and had varied lacquers or designs. Gardens could be seen located behind the buildings, so the street, especially at first-floor height looked uniform.

When they neared the tower, on a wooden sign with beautiful writing, the words Three Hills Sect could be read. This tower was enormous compared to the other buildings, it was a hundred square feet, and had ten floors. Near the door, a pair of men in their early twenties, dressed in the blue uniform of inner disciples were standing guard, when they saw the Palace Master, both of them bowed, and with a tone filled in reverence saluted

"We pay our respects to the Wisdom Palace Master." Then without saying anything else, they opened the heavy stone door of the tower allowing the trio to pass, closed them right as the last one, Shu Qiang entered.