Neither of Wu Guang's expectations came true, so after spending three hours examining every nook and cranny accessible from the beach, the pair had decided to return.

Before doing so, Wu Guang used his full sensing capacity to try and find any traces of activity but did not get anything.

After returning, Wu Guang spoke with Elder Di about the lack of results as well asked him if he could go without Yuan Taotu on the following days. The latter was explained by him as worry for his teammate, but in truth, Wu Guang simply did not want to have him nearby. This wasn't because of a lack of trust or worry as he said. No, it was to use all his available methods to search without explaining or lying about their origins. As for Elder Di, Wu Guang was sure of his abilities to conceal his methods enough for the Elder to not notice anything amiss, after all, the latter followed him from at least a mile away.

Thankfully the Elder agreed but tasked Wu Guang with explaining it to Yuan Taotu. Unexpectedly, the latter acknowledged such a decision. Albeit Wu Guang could feel that this wasn't received calmly, inwardly he considered this for the best. Yuan Taotu intentions were sincere, but even so, Wu Guang could not reveal his real self to anyone, no matter how he felt about the party.

The next day right after breakfast, Wu Guang repeated his previous announcement of going towards the beach. This time he also said that he will be going alone before departing.

It took him three hours in total to reach the edge of the beach they had examined the day before. For today, Wu Guang intended to swim or move in the swallow water while moving alongside the normal island's coastline, which comprised of cliffs a hundred feet tall.

With Wu Guang's cultivation and improved defense, he wasn't scared of the reefs or currents, but still, he moved very slowly. He carefully examined the cliff wall and took note of all the indents.

After an hour, he was right in front of the tower's base island. From here, only three miles separated the cliff from the tower. So in case someone escaped, they could reach here by following the waves and currents. Still, the wall had no signs of being climbed or touched, so Wu Guang discarded this guess.

The hill or to be exact the group of hills that gave origin to these cliffs extended to the south for hundreds of miles. And judging from the maps he had seen, there should be no viable access to the sea until a small cape fifty miles down. Still, Wu Guang felt that this could be mistaken. Especially as the most recent maps of the coast were from several dozens of years ago.

And so he continued to move.

"Seems that I was right" he muttered a few hours later.

At this point, he had moved at least 10 miles from the beach, and supposedly his current location should be in front of a plain cliff wall. And it mainly was so, still, a small and narrow entrance or cave could be seen in it. Actually, the latter was a mistake Wu Guang quickly corrected. It was not that the cave opening was small, but as it was high tide and the sea had grown deeper and deeper since he had left the cape... it was simply that the visible part of the cave entrance was small.

The cave itself was hidden by the surrounding rock outcroppings and the current high tide so if not for Wu Guang's approach by following the cliff wall, it most probably could not be found at all.

Coming closer, Wu Guang spread out his senses and carefully scanned the area. The results confirmed that he wasn't mistaken at all. Not only there were a bit of qi trails characteristic of human cultivators, but there was also a small remnant of fresh aura!

This could only mean that a Soul realm cultivator had been here not more than a few hours ago.

In such a situation, Wu Guang had two options. The first one would be to brave the danger and explore the cave by himself. And the second one would be to notify Elder Di before deciding on a plan of action.

After a brief thought, he decided to go with the second one because of the possible presence of a Soul Realm cultivator.

Moving back for half a mile, he took out a small signal flare and activated it, and started to wait for Elder Di.

"Hmm?" After waiting for a few minutes without any response, Wu Guang grew alert. Elder Di should have been following him from behind and such flare was the agreed signal to meet up... So why he had not appeared?

Without any other way to confirm the current situation, Wu Guang spread his senses again. This time he went with the maximum of his capacity and covered an area of at least two miles.

Still, he did not find any traces of the Elder that was supposed to protect him from the shadows.

In such a situation, even he could not resist inwardly cursing "Fuck, so this is how I was protected all this time? Thank the heavens I have my owns means to survive any possible encounter..."

Now Wu Guang was again placed into choosing one of two different routes. He could simply retreat and later inform the Sect about this location, or he could go and explore the cave by himself.

After thinking about it for a long time, he decided on the second option.

It wasn't that he really wanted to find out all the answers by himself, but simply because he felt annoyed by the people behind all this. To say it harshly, he did not care about the incidents, sect, or island. He was simply angry for being targeted, after all, his initial plan of cultivating in peace until reaching the needed level to leave the plane went down the drain right after he had taken over the body.

Reaching a decision and having made up his mind respecting how he would act, Wu Guang used his mind power to conceal his presence. And he did so wholeheartedly, to a point that no cultivator below the Sage realm could even hope to sense him.

In fact, even an Earth Realm cultivator would depend on luck to sense him, after all, Wu Guang's mind power was at the peak of the current plane limit.

Making sure that he could not be sensed, Wu Guang slowly started moving towards the cave's entrance.

Entering it wasn't hard even with the high tide, but Wu Guang decided to set up a backup plan before entering.

This backup plan was simple but if activated would be very effective and unexpected for most of this plane's cultivators. Basically, it was to cast a few dozens of 'Lighting Attracting Seal' around the cave's entrance. So in the case of a bad situation inside, he could escape safely and even lead any possible pursuers into a kill zone. While if someone arrived from outside, the seals would help him avoid being surrounded.

The tide had only started receding, but even so, the cave's real size was starting to be revealed. If before the space between the water and the cave ceiling was smaller than a few feet, then now, a boat could easily pass. As for the actual size during the lowest time of the tide, Wu Guang felt it to be about forty feet tall and thirty or so wide.

In any case, his preparations were now finished and so he proceeded to silently swim into it.

Initially, the cave was more like a tunnel and remained of the same size as the entrance. Except for the qi trails and strands of aura he felt before, there was no other indication of human presence. Still, as these trails and strands grew more and more concentrated, Wu Guang was sure that there will be something at the end of the tunnel.

After about two hundred feet the tunnel started widening.

It continued to become wider and wider for the following hundred feet before revealing a several hundred feet wide cave.

The ceiling had remained almost without change during the widening of the tunnel, but inside this round cave, it was at least fifty feet taller.

"Mmm?" As Wu Guang was scanning the surroundings before leaving the tunnel that brought him here, he noticed a dim light on the opposite side of the cave. This light came from a lantern hanging on a makeshift pole. Most importantly, not only the pole was built on something solid but there was a boat moored to it!

A careful scan did not reveal any people nearby and so Wu Guang started swimming towards the boat.

Nearing it, he discovered that what he initially mistook for ground or land was a small wooden pier. This pier connected to the cave wall, and on this wall, he discovered a camouflaged door.

The camouflage was meant to disguise the door as part of the cave wall, so Wu Guang concluded that he had indeed found what he searched for. "Probably behind the door there is a room or two where the escaped bandits and their helpers met up and rest... If so, how do they leave the cave? I doubt that they do it via the same tunnel from where I arrived, so somewhere inside a passage towards Half Island should exist" Thinking this, Wu Guang approached the door and started sensing what lied behind it.

He wasn't mistaken about a room is present, but even he could not sense anything past it. "Elder Mo's and my guess was correct. All this is meticulously prepared and I can sense that a concealing rune is placed inside this room. Who could do it if not for the people from Black Eagles?"

With such thoughts and determined to find out everything now that he had reached this point, Wu Guang prepared took one of his lighting trap-infused throwing daggers and slowly opened the door...