Awakening of the Ancient: Rise of the Fallen

"Alright. Check the other places then. After checking these courtyards, we can go back and join everyone else," the person told Xu Ming, not recognizing that there was someone else behind that mask.

Xu Ming turned back and walked towards another courtyard to check those places.

"Why are you joining them? Isn't it more dangerous?" Valeria asked Xu Ming. She couldn't understand why he was joining them instead of escaping.

"We can't escape. We are forgetting something important. If the sect is under attack, then they would have taken precautions to prevent people from escaping. Even if I manage to leave the sect, Escaping will be difficult. The flying beast that I have can't fly much fast. It's much more feasible to stick with them in disguise. Especially with the Mask of Mischief. They can't recognize me, and I can see what's actually happening and how bad the situation actually is," Xu Ming replied to her.

Xu Ming kept going in and out of various courtyards, pretending to check if someone was inside or not. In a short span of a few minutes, he had checked many courtyards.

In a few hours, they checked many courtyards and finished with the search.

"There was no one here,"

"No one here either,"

Xu Ming also activated the effects of the Mask of Mischief to make his voice seem like the voice of the man he had killed before he also answered, "No one here either."

"Alright. Let's go back then," The one in the lead let out before he brought a huge golden eagle out of his Beast Bag. 

The Eagle was so big that it could easily carry tens of humans on it.

All the masked people climbed on the Eagle. Xu Ming also followed the others as he got on top of the Golden Eagle.

'The person that kept the Eagle should be the leader of this small team,' Xu Ming thought as he glanced at the person. He honestly wondered what the identity of these people was. The only clue he had so far was this python symbol on their clothes that Xu Ming didn't recognize.

'I should've spent some time reading about other sects as well. They should be one of our enemy sects as well. If I had known about their identity, I would be better prepared,' Xu Ming thought as he shook his head.

The Golden Eagle flew through the core sect, which xu MIng found completely empty. There was not a single person that could be seen on the ground other than a few people that were dressed in the same clothes as the infiltrators that were with Xu Ming.

After a short time, Xu Ming finally started seeing blood on the ground. There were bodies lying on the ground. The bodies that belonged to his fellow sect disciples. They were lying on the ground lifeless. Their blood flew out of their body constantly.

There were masked people on the ground that were lining up the dead bodies.

"Hehehe, this went easier than I was expecting. Who knew that one of the strongest sects of this continent would be this weak," one of the guys that was sitting near Long Chen started laughing.

"I'm disappointed as well. Who knows, the next sect we target would be able to give us some challenges. So far, I have only received disappointment from the peak powers of this sect," another person responded.

"of course the sects would be weak. No one can compare to our sect. Isn't this why we left on this quest to conquer all continents on this world. The weakness of these sects are only proving how right we were," another person chimed in.

"Guys, You can't grow content. We have begun our conquer journey from this continent because this was the weakest continent. We will move to stronger continents. We are going from low to high, not high to low. It will get fun later." The leader said as he glanced back.

"Yeah, if we had started from the strongest continent, things would get boring quickly since we would know that there is no competition, but if we start from the bottom, there will always be hope that the next continent will be better."

It seemed like everyone understood as they all nodded their heads.

'Are they not from here? Xu Ming wondered as he glanced at everyone.

"from their words, it seemed like they thought too little of this continent and that they were not from here.

Xu Ming got a feeling that they were probably the peak power of another continent or perhaps from another mortal world that had some information about this world. Their words didn't make it seem like they did it because of some enmity or from some revenge. Xu Ming hoped that he could just step forward and ask them straight away what they were trying to do here, but that would simply expose his identity here. He just wanted to stay silent and passively get the information that he could get until he found an opportunity to leave the sect and escape this place.

They reached near the arena, which Xu Ming recognized to be the place where the tournament was supposed to be held.

Xu Ming saw people sitting on their knees, surrounded by a few people that were in masks while thousands of bodies lay around them. The only few people from their sect that he found to be alive were the disciples.

He looked to the side of the arena and saw the dead bodies of the Elders. Even the Sect Master's lifeless body was lying on the ground. His head was separated from his body which proved to Xu Ming how gruesome his death was,

Xu Ming couldn't help but clench his fist as he looked at the body of the sect master. He could feel his blood boiling. He wanted to kill them all, but he controlled his anger. 

There were tens of people standing there that looked to be older. They seemed like they held more power as they did not wear the mask. They were wearing white clothes and a crimson robe. All of them were wearing a python shaped black ring, unlike the others that Xu Ming had seen. He assumed that they were probably the Elders or the leaders.

There was another person that was there, but he was sitting on a throne that was placed there like a king.