Yun Xi's words immediately caught everyone's attention. The group lowered their eyes in silence, deep in thought.
Zhou Langchen turned to his junior disciple and asked, "Junior Brother Bai, do you remember the exact time you sent the distress signal?"
The disciple from Mingjian Sect—who had earlier recounted the situation—was the one addressed. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "It was during the Hour of the Rat, between 11 PM and 1 AM. That happened to be when the empty city was being crushed. I thought the spatial disruption might give me a chance, so I tried using my identity jade token to send out three distress signals. I didn't expect even one to get through."
Zhou Langchen nodded in understanding. That explained why his identity token showed the distress signal as having come from the City Lord's estate.
Zi Jing lightly adjusted her hair and said, "After Bai Daoyou managed to send the signal, we also tried to find a way out during that time, but we still came up empty."
As fellow cultivators, any inconsistencies Zhou Langchen could detect, the others could sense as well.
Yun Xi coughed lightly again and spoke,"What I want to point out is a specific day. Do you all remember? Before we were transported here, the city's cultivators and shopkeepers mentioned that in two days, the City Lord's successor, Li Cangyuan Zhēnrén, would be hosting a dual cultivation ceremony?"
Some of the trapped cultivators furrowed their brows in thought. After a moment, someone said, "I never heard anything like that before we got sent here."
Others responded, "I did hear something about it, but I was in a hurry and didn't plan to join the festivities."
"I heard about it too, and even went around to ask a few questions. But strangely enough, no one knew who Li Zhēnrén's partner was supposed to be. It felt off, so I planned to leave early.
I even warned a few people who seemed eager to attend, told them to be careful. I mean, it's a major event—how could no one know the name or background of the person getting bonded to the City Lord's heir? That's suspicious, right?
Looking back now, I probably got myself thrown into this place just by opening my mouth."
The cultivators began whispering among themselves, trying to confirm their memories with one another.
Zi Jing glanced at Yun Xi with new appreciation. She hadn't expected the girl to be so observant. Her beautiful eyes gleamed as she said, "If that's the case, then Li Cangyuan was planning to use this dao companion ceremony to pull something."
Yun Xi could only think of that possibility. Otherwise, why go through so much trouble to trap them here? She nodded and spread her hands."Seems likely. The problem is we don't know much about Li Zhēnrén, so we have no idea what he's actually after."
Mu Ningzhu rubbed her temples, feeling that things were spiraling out of control. If she had known, she never would've taken the airship to Shuangshan City.
Qin Tongshuang's expression shifted several times. Her brows were tightly knit. This was a situation well beyond what they could handle. Her cultivation was still too low.
Zhang Yan, who had been silent the entire time, began rummaging through his storage pouch, as if searching for something important.
Zhou Langchen raised his voice. "Fellow Daoists, we're all stuck on the same boat here. If we want to break out of this situation, we'll need to work together. Otherwise, none of us are getting out of here.
Right now, everyone think carefully—have we missed any clues? Maybe there's something we overlooked that could point the way out."
Prompted by Zhou Langchen's words, the cultivators began wracking their brains, retracing everything that happened when they entered Shuangshan City.
Eventually, Zhang Yan pulled out a beast hide notebook from his storage pouch and handed it to Mu Ningzhu. "Senior Sister Mu, I bought this miscellaneous record a while ago. It mentions the two ascended cultivators from Shuangshan City. Maybe there's a clue inside."
Mu Ningzhu flipped to the page Zhang Yan mentioned and read it carefully. Then she passed it along to Yun Xi.
Yun Xi swept it once with her spiritual sense and immediately absorbed all the information. She then handed the booklet to Qin Tongshuang.
Since it was only one page, Qin Tongshuang read it quickly before giving it to Zhou Langchen.
After Zhou Langchen finished, Zuo Die'er and Ming Ya leaned over to look. The booklet made a full round before returning to Zhang Yan's hands.
Zhou Langchen finally spoke, "From these records, it's not hard to infer that this empty city—an exact replica of Shuangshan City—was created by two Divine Transformation cultivators working together to forge a separate space. It's like a mirrored reflection of the real Shuangshan City."
Mu Ningzhu added, "The two Divine Transformation cultivators cultivated a special technique that allowed them to transfer their cultivation to each other. But during the process, both of them would be extremely vulnerable and couldn't risk even the slightest disturbance.
So they created this space together as the safest place to undergo that cultivation process."
Yun Xi nodded. "Exactly. There's no place safer than this. Even if someone sensed a fluctuation in spiritual energy, they would search in the real Shuangshan City. No one would imagine there's another space like this."
Zuo Die'er frowned. "Even if we know where this empty city came from, what good does that do us? It still doesn't help us find a way out."
Ming Ya, sensing Zuo Die'er's frustration, immediately responded in a soft voice, "Senior Sister Zuo, don't worry. If those two powerful cultivators could enter this space to cultivate, there must be a way out. Otherwise, how would they leave?"
That thought calmed Zuo Die'er a little, but her expression changed again and she blurted out, "Divine Transformation cultivators can tear open space. Of course they can leave. But we don't even have a single Golden Core here. How are we supposed to tear space and get out?"
Yun Xi couldn't deny that Zuo Die'er had a point. But did she have to say it so bluntly? That was like pouring cold water over everyone's heads. She could already feel the shift in mood from some of the other cultivators.
She said helplessly, "Zuo Daoyou isn't wrong, but don't forget—the City Lord of Shuangshan City is only at the Nascent Soul stage. He can't tear space either. If he managed to send us into this place using a formation, then that proves there's definitely a way out."
Yun Xi's words did a good job of calming the crowd. Zuo Die'er, prompted by Ming Ya's look, also realized she'd spoken too harshly and gave an awkward laugh before falling silent.
"Wei Daoyou, are you suggesting that the key is a formation hidden in the City Lord's estate?"
"Hmm. That's the only thing I can think of. But I've only been cultivating for a short time and haven't studied formations much."
Yun Xi answered honestly.
Zhou Langchen thought for a moment and said, "If that's the case, then when the two spaces overlap again during the Hour of the Rat tonight, we'll search the City Lord's estate carefully. If there really is a teleportation formation, it's most likely to reveal itself at that time."
This time, no one objected. The group of cultivators split up and were each assigned a section of space to monitor, minimizing confusion and reducing the chance of missing clues.
That night, at the Hour of the Rat, the empty city once again began to tremble under crushing force. The City Lord's estate shuddered. Every cultivator released their spiritual sense, scanning their assigned areas.
Yun Xi, however, quietly released her Nascent Soul-level divine sense, covering the entire estate. In the brief instant the space was fully crushed, she caught sight of someone releasing a message talisman. The talisman passed through a certain node and exited the space.
Yun Xi's lovely almond-shaped eyes widened in shock.
She hadn't expected that among all the victims trapped here, someone had infiltrated as a spy.