Chapter 698: A Strange City

Chapter 698: A Strange City

“Yunfei? Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?? We haven’t seen a single person yet, it feels like this is a ghost city….” Zheng Kai’s face was starting to pale a bit.

It had been ten minutes since they entered the city, and they had yet to come across a single person. “There’s definitely people up ahead right, or am I sensing things wrong?”

“There’s definitely people up ahead, and a whole lot of them.”

The tense look on Zheng Kai’ face loosened up a bit, though he was still feeling a little uneasy about things. “Xiao Qi, your soulsense is stronger than mine. Can you sense what’s going on in the center?”

He was given an annoyed glance in return. “You’ve already asked me this so many times. There’s definitely a lot of people up ahead. They’re all pretty weak, so they have to be commoners, but there’s as many people as there are stars in the skies. With how they’re moving, it’s definitely an event or something.”

Zheng Kai didn’t look convinced at that. “But that’s what so strange about it!!” He exclaimed.

“Even the biggest national holiday in the empire wouldn’t bring out so many people like this! What kind of event is going on in Formagua City to have a turnout like this? It’s suspicious, we should definitely be careful about this….”

“Ah’Zheng’s right. We should be careful.” Bai Yunfei turned away from a nearby building. “The beacons up in the buildings are all lit up, but there’s no one in them like if they all had to leave suddenly. Some of the buildings are using light stones, but there’s a few using candles and oil lamps to light up there places. I can tell that most of them are almost out of fuel. If it was just one or two buildings like that, it’d be a coincidence, but there’s at least twenty houses on this street alone like this. It’s definitely strange…..”

“You noticed even that? But….then that means…..” Zheng Kai trailed off.

“That means a long time has already passed since they were lit up. Most of the oil lamps and candles are made from fat, so they can burn for a decent amount of time. I’d guess that it’s been at least a day and a half….” Kou Tingting picked up after him.

“Then there’s definitely a problem here, isn’t there?!” Zheng Kai exclaimed.

Bai Yunfei continued forward. “We’ll get our answers when we get to the city center. Let’s be careful until then. Don’t split up no matter what and be prepared for anything.”

Seeing that everyone was nervous, Bai Yunfei smiled to cheer them up, “Haha don’t be nervous. We’ve a strong party here. Even if there is danger, we can handle it.”

Zheng Kai blinked. “Oh...I nearly forgot we had two class seven soulbeasts with us. And with us, we’d be able to fight off one or two Soul Kings together. Why were we even worried….”

Clearly much more relaxed now, the group continued onwards to the center of the city.

……

It took another ten minutes before the group were nearly at the heart of the city. The auras of those inhabitants of the city were getting clearer and clearer as they drew close. Most of them were just commoners, and there were definitely a few soul cultivators, though their soulforce was on the weaker side of the spectrum. This meant they were either quite weak as soul cultivators, or they were trying to suppress their auras.

The auras of those in the center were fluctuating nonstop almost like the dancing embers of a flame.

Even for such a tremendous amount of people in one small area, this was very strange.

At last, Bai Yunfei and his group came to a stop right next to a three-story tall building. In the street beyond this building would be the area where everyone was at.

“Finally here.” Zheng Kai sighed, “How mysterious, I’m dying of curiosity here. Wonder what kind of event is taking place here.”

As Zheng Kai was about to cross the street to look, Bai Yunfei suddenly called out to him. “Hold on! Something’s wrong here!!”

“Eh?” Startled by his cry, Zheng Kai turned to look, “What problem?”

“Listen!!” Bai Yunfei’s face looked grim, “Do you realize we haven’t heard any voices or sound ever since we entered the city?!”

“Voices?” Everyone blinked at first, though they too quickly looked grim when they realized Bai Yunfei was correct.

He was right!! No one in the group had heard even a peep since they entered the city! It was one thing to not hear a thing at the city gates, but to be so close to the center where tens of thousands of people would be, it was still deathly quiet here!

That was….far too suspicious!

Everyone had been far too focused on trying to sense for any auras in the buildings as they walked down the streets. Because they had been used to not hearing any sound since the beginning, they had practically forgotten how strange that was!

“Don’t move you guys. Xiao Qi and I will go in first. Long Lan, pay attention to the surroundings.”

Bai Yunfei spoke to the group after two terse seconds. Stepping forward, he leapt several dozen meters into the sky to take a closer look.

“……”

As soon as he did, Bai Yunfei suddenly went as still as a board. His eyes widened in abject shock as if he had seen something unbelievable.

No one moved as they watched him.

It was Zheng Kai who finally couldn’t handle the suspense. “Yunfei, what in the world is going on? What can you see?”

Bai Yunfei blinked a few times, startled by Zheng Kai’s voice. “There’s….there’s no one….”

“What?” With how quiet he was, Zheng Kai didn’t hear him. “There’s no what?”

Eyes still straining wide open in shock, Bai Yunfei repeated what he said, “There’s...there’s no one here at all!!”

“No one?” Everyone spoke. “What kind of joke are you playing at?” Zheng Kai cried out, “There’s thousands of people here, how can there be no one? Forget it. I’ll go myself.”

He leapt up into the air to get to where Bai Yunfei was. When he looked over, his jaw immediately dropped wide open to be as stiff as Bai Yunfei was. “What….what the f*ck!! There really isn’t anyone! What is going on here?!”

The reactions of the two confused Tang Xinyun and the others. Leaping up into the skies, they went to look for themselves.

And when they looked down to where the center of the city was….

There really wasn’t anyone there!!

A giant plaza stood at the center of the city. Where everyone felt the auras of the inhabitants, not even a single person could actually be seen there!!

Even though they couldn’t see it, everyone could clearly sense that tens of thousands of auras were right where they were looking at!

Sensing a person’s aura and not seeing the actual person was one thing. But to sense the auras of tens of thousands of people and not see them was another!

This was a freakish situation of the utmost proportions. Even as as inexperienced as they were, no one in the group had no idea what in the world was going on here and were shocked.

Several seconds went by as Bai Yunfei tried to process what was going on in his head. “Xiao Qi, Long Lan, scan the area!” He called out to the two.

The Charm Bracelet on his left hand pulsated with light as he connected to the minds of the two so they could combine their efforts.

Xiao Qi and Long Lan nodded and spread out their soulsense throughout the city center.

They weren’t simply scanning the area like they normally did, but were now completely focused in their actions. With the Charm Bracelet combining their minds together, the three’s perception could be enhanced greatly. With their efforts, they could scan the entire Formagua City!!

Even a mid-stage Soul King would have to exert a great deal of energy in order to replicate what the three were doing.

With their senses heightened to their extremes, Bai Yunfei and the other two were able to sense the abnormality of the auras in front of them!

The auras of everyone here looked different to one another at first. But now that they were all focusing on it, the three realized that at the very root of all the auras, the way they were all fluctuating were….identical to one another!

“Bzz…..”

As if touching upon something when they looked closely at it, the three started to hear a buzzing sound, and then, something began to stir!!