“Quickly, we must prepare for the feast!”

“Yes, bring them in, they need to be prepared before we can have the feast!”

“Yes, yes!”

‘The hell are they doing…’

Zhang Dong had managed to sneak in through the chamber door while it was being opened. His form was that of a very thin shade so it was quite easy to make his way in. He had followed after the two mermaids that had captured one of his sect members. The room that all of them were being brought in had more than just this person, there were multiple of his sect personnel here.

To his surprise, they were all dumped in one spot on top of each other by these unseaming mermaids. The beautiful women were floating around and dancing as if they were at some kind of dancing event. It was actually somewhat strange and creepy when he took note of those big grins. They were certainly preparing something insidious and now that he came here he could confirm it.

This looked to be some type of kitchen, a strange large pot was right in the middle of it. What made the thing weird was that the water inside of this cauldron was starting to boil. Everything was already covered in water so this had to be some type of special cooking utensil that only affected the water inside of it while not allowing the heat to seep out.

There was one larger mermaid in the middle, her skin was gray and her teeth were a lot sharper than the rest. She was wearing a cap that he would only see on modern-day chefs back in his old world. This was probably the main cook that was starting to insert some herbs and vegetables into the now boiling pot. It was clear what was going on here, these fish people wanted to eat his sect members. The cook was already picking out a good knife to chop them up into something smaller.

‘Do they like to eat humans or something? Could this be what this is all about?’

The Demi-humans were here for the great hunt, the Emerald Phoenix Empire to gain power and resources. His friends from the magical kingdom were searching for their secret relics, all had some type of grand reason to be here. Could these undersea creatures just be there because they saw the cultivators as food?

‘There are techniques that change people into pills used by demonic cultivators… could they seek to enhance their bodies by eating us or something?’

He wasn’t sure what was going on and what the true aim of these people here was. It was possible that they were just part of this pocket dimension and were actually not related to the Cerulean Empress. It could have been some type of strange side quest that the mysterious being that created this world created for him. If it was anything like the previous location he was in, then perhaps he needed to prepare for the worst.

‘I should probably call gramps and Qiang before I go through with this.’

While the situation looked dire the people that were here weren’t getting cut up just yet. Before turning this kitchen into a battlefield he needed to give his allies a heads-up. Thus he brought up his system window and now clicked the working faction window where he could actually contact the two.

‘Gramps, have you found anyone?’

‘Dong’er? Yes, I’ve managed to find six members.’

‘Qiang, what about you?’

‘Senior Brother, I have seven people with me!’

‘Where were they when you found them?’

‘Oh? They were at a similar resort as we were but the lovely ladies fled the moment they saw us coming.’

‘So they were gathering our people at similar locations… together with the ones that are here, that makes it twenty-four, you really didn’t take that many people with you.’

‘Twenty-four? Then you found the rest of our group?’

‘Yes, I’ll attempt to free them but you should watch out for the world around you, it could go through a change. You two need to rendezvous back at that resort.’

‘A change? Is it some type of trap?’

‘Something like that. I’ve managed to sneak into their hidden lair, if this place is anything like the other one I visited, there could be trouble. It would be better if you rendezvous together and set up a few protective formations before I join you.’

‘You can count on me, senior brother!’

‘Is it that dire? Very well, we will wait for you Dong’er be careful.’

‘I’ll try to keep a low profile but I can’t guarantee anything, talk to you later.’

It seemed that all of the people were accounted for. The group that went to search for him was composed of mostly elite members. There was one nascent soul master here that had gone along and the rest were core formation experts at the great circle stage. While they wouldn’t offer much help to the stronger masters, they could act as eyes and spread out for the search. It was a lot easier for these small groups to function versus a huge army that needed to be micromanaged.

He ended the call between them and glanced over at one of the mermaids. She was in the process of carrying one of the passed-out cultivators toward a large wooden board. There were cuts and nicks on this board. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that his sect members would be cut up on it and then their parts were thrown into the large pot. Perhaps others would be turned to sushi before his eyes if he didn’t do anything about it.

‘I should try using these new skills, maybe I can do this quietly…’

While it wouldn’t be hard just to blast his way through these mermaids, he feared that some type of trap would be triggered. There were a lot of those general clones around this place that were at the nascent soul level. If he attacked without thinking they would probably swarm this location in a matter of seconds. Only if he could keep it quiet then would he be able to sneak out of this place.

Thus he initiated his new Dao of darkness. The shadow that he was sticking to started expanding. It traveled all over the walls to block all the light out from this large kitchen chamber. The mermaids only noticed that something was wrong only after the darkness fell all over the place. With his shadow covering the entire location no sound could escape outside and he was free to come out of his hiding spot.

“What is happening, how did it get so dark?”

“Is the Mistress angry? But it’s not dinner time yet, we should have more time!”

He wasn’t sure what these mermaids were talking about but he used this chance to quickly knock them all out. The normal ones were at the level of core formation experts with the cook being a tiny bit stronger. It didn’t take much besides his Qi to seep into their forms to stun them. Soon all of them were down on the ground and as he had managed to silently take care of this situation.

‘This went better than expected…’

Zhang Dong was standing in the middle of the room as the shades seeped back into his body through his feet. Usually, he took the radiant approach but thanks to this Dao other forms of combat were now possible. It was suited for assassination and trick attacks. He could see himself hiding attacks in shadows while fighting his enemies. If the environment was suited for it, then perhaps it would be possible to even sneak up on a master to take them out in one hit.

‘I’ll better put them into the medallion for now…’

After the enemy cooks were taken out he started gathering out the people that were brought here. Luckily he had arrived as the last person was brought over. Probably if Zhang Jin and Huo Qiang didn’t find the other locations the sect members were being picked up, more of them would have wound up here. It was clear that the resorts were a honeypot trap.

The enticing mermaids would serenade the victims into a comatose state before bringing them here. Now that he got his hands on some of his sect members he was sure about it. They were all slumbering with stupid grins on their faces. They were all under a strong illusion technique which made them dream of nice things and events. They were probably still thinking that they were up in one of those resorts having some fun with these half-women half-fish.

‘It seems to affect not only the men but the women cultivators too…’

The group of people that were formed to search for him wasn’t composed of men only, there were several women in the pile that he rescued. The enticing melody could even affect people of the same gender it seemed. If it was this strong then perhaps he needed to watch his back. Perhaps the Cerulean Empress was capable of performing similar techniques that would probably be even further enhanced.

‘They shouldn’t affect me but it wouldn’t be the same for the others…’

He could already imagine Huo Qiang and Zhang Jin charging at him just to serve their new Empress. Perhaps bringing over his entire army into this Angler fish was the wrong strategy. Now that he looked at this mess it was possible for it to go south. It would have been a lot simpler if he just set out on this journey himself.

‘Was this supposed to be a solo quest or something? Great…’

After shaking his head a few times he started packing up. There was no reason for him to stay here and the safety of his people was a priority. His teleportation feature was still not working so he couldn’t really set up a teleportation spot here. Thus instead he sank back into the shadows to quickly crawl through the way that he entered.

The words of the mermaids bothered them, they seemed to be making this human pot for someone. Probably if it wasn’t made that person would be mad and come to check. This was probably the leader of this palace and perhaps a side boss that he would need to handle. However, his main objective was still to just wrap things up here and return to the golden palace where his people were. There was no time to battle beasts and monsters without identifying who the Cerulean Empress was.

‘I’ll just grab a few things along with these mermaids, they should give me the info that I need!’

Thus he sank back into the shadows and made his way back to Zhang Jin and Huo Qiang that were waiting above ground. If everything went well, they would soon depart back to the palace and the volcanic area where everyone else was.