1046 Prey Walks Into the Trap

Arriving at the border between the Flame Sky Kingdom and the Star Shattering Sect where a few skirmishes between the elders stationed at a nearby branch sect and the elders of the Flame Sky Kingdom in charge of guarding the border, Shu Yao jumped off the winged lion with a somewhat bewildered expression on her face. 

"To think it only took a little over half an hour to reach the Flame Sky Kingdom…" Muttering this to herself after jumping off, Shu Yao turned around to look up at the winged lion hovering in the air beside her. "Has anyone ever told you how awesome you are?"

Roar~!

Hearing Shu Yao's praise, the winged lion demon beast let out a happy roar as a prideful expression appeared on its face. Even if it was powerful and was often looked up to by all the disciples and elders who came to give it food, it felt something different in the way Shu Yao praised it.

"We should get going, the token I crafted for Sheng Mei won't last forever." 

Knowing that they didn't have more than half an hour or little over an hour left before the energy stored in the token ran out and exposed Sheng Mei's location to the unknown Domain Lord Realm Expert, Shu Yao didn't waste too much time after jumping off the winged lion demon beast before starting to make her way in the direction of the Flame Sky Kingdom's capital city.

Although Sheng Mei wasn't hiding inside the capital city, she was not too far away from it according to what Elder Song had told her. Not to mention, as long as she got close enough to the token, she would be able to easily sense it.

After all, the token was crafted by her, and the power contained inside of it was her own. If Sheng Mei could hide from her with her own power, it would be rather embarrassing for her. Not only that, but it would also mean that she would have to wait until the token ran out of power.

"Looks like she is inside the forest beside the capital city of the Flame Sky Kingdom." Luckily for Shu Yao, this did not end up happening as she easily managed to pick up Sheng Mei's location after getting closer to the capital city of the Flame Sky Kingdom.

However, she also realized that the unknown Domain Lord Realm Expert that Sheng Mei told them was chasing after her was nowhere to be seen. Even looking at the winged lion demon beast that was obediently following after her, it did not seem like it had picked up anyone powerful nearby.

Did the Domain Lord Realm Expert perhaps leave the capital already?

Thinking about this as she slowly approached the forest where Sheng Mei was hiding while constantly scanning her surroundings for any signs of the Domain Lord Realm Expert, Shu Yao could only conclude that the Domain Lord Realm Expert should have already left the capital city at this point in time.

Maybe he did leave the city to chase after Sheng Mei in the direction she had gone before using the token or maybe he realized that she was working with the Star Shattering Sect and decided to escape in an attempt to avoid clashing with the Star Shattering Sect.

After all, considering that the Star Shattering Sect had someone in the Soul Ascension Realm now, there was no way an ordinary Domain Lord Realm Expert would dare to offend them unless forced to do so.

Domain Lord Realm or not, everyone valued their lives and wouldn't carelessly throw it away if there was another way out. Even more so for those who had lived for a long time and wanted to do everything in their power to extend their lifespan.

"There she is."

Spotting Sheng Mei only a few seconds after reaching the forest, Shu Yao didn't slow down as she entered the forest and made her way over towards Sheng Mei who was currently in the process of nervously looking around herself for any signs of the Domain Lord Realm Expert, she had seen back in the throne room.

Although she was confident that the token should be able to hide her from the unknown Domain Lord Realm Expert, she still felt uneasy whenever she remembered how the Domain lord Realm Expert had essentially allowed her to leave the throne room without chasing after her. Instead, having chosen to stay and slowly deal with Hong Xuan.

Rustle~!

"Huh!?"

For this reason, she could not stop herself from jumping up in surprise when she suddenly saw the bush not too far away from where she was standing part ways as Shu Yao appeared-

Thump!

To the point where she ended up losing her footing when landing back down again, causing her to land on her back in a rather painful manner. 

If not for the fact that she was in the Nascent Soul Realm, the fall would undoubtedly have broken her back in several places…

"Sheng Mei, I'm an elder from the Star Shattering Sect, I'm here to help you." Seeing the comical scene of Sheng Mei sprawled all over the ground after the fall, Shu Yao did her best to hold in her laughter as she introduced herself.

"Ah? Ah! Grand Elder Shu Yao! It's a pleasure to meet you, sorry for the late greeting, I… happened to see something interesting one the ground…" Realizing that it was just the elder from Star Shattering Sect who had come to help her, Sheng Mei awkwardly got up before greeting her. Doing her best to not admit how she had fallen flat on the ground just now.

"It's fine, we should get going before that Domain Lord Realm Expert shows up. So… If you will excuse me for a moment-"

"Hiii!?"

Knowing that it would be best for them to leave before anything troublesome happened, Shu Yao casual walked over to Sheng Mei and lifted her up before carrying her out of the forest before placing her on top of the winged lion demon beast that quickly flew off with both of them in the direction of the Star Shattering Sect.

During the entire process, they didn't encounter the Domain Lord Realm Expert that Sheng Mei had informed them about beforehand. So… Shu Yao concluded that it should just be a Domain Lord Realm Expert who happened to have grudge with the royal family of the Flame Sky Kingdom.

Now that the Flame Sky Kingdom's royal family had been destroyed, he should have seen no reason to chase after Shu Yao and instead decided to leave. Fearing that she might be related to the Star Shattering Sect, a power with a Soul Ascension Realm Expert.

Feeling like this made sense, she also decided to inform Elder Song about this on her way back to the sect… And Elder Song also agreed with her conclusion. Feeling that it made sense.

After all, the Flame Sky Kingdom had been around for a long time and had made countless enemies over the years.

This time, it just so happened that one of those enemies managed to break through to the Domain Lord Realm and came for revenge when they were struggling to deal with the Star Shattering Sect, and they didn't pay too much attention to anything else. Likely giving him a chance to find a flaw in the formation guarding the capital city of the Flame Sky Kingdom and sneak inside without being noticed.

Of course, all of this did make perfect sense to Shu Yao and Elder Song considering that the Domain Lord Realm Expert Sheng Mei had told them about was nowhere to be seen.

…

A few minutes earlier when Shu Yao had just entered the forest, the unknown Domain Lord Realm Expert who had decided to hide himself above where Sheng Mei was hidden and wait for an opportunity to attack the Grand Elder from the Star Shattering Sect was frozen on the spot without being able to move a single muscle as he stared directly into the eyes of a small cute looking rabbit standing on a small cloud a few hundred meters in front of him.

"This… What in the world is that!?" Not able to say anything else as he felt like a small helpless animal being stared down by a powerful predator, he could only nervously stare back at the cute looking rabbit floating in front of him. Not daring to make a single move to attack Shu Yao and Sheng Mei below.

Rustle~

Even when Sheng Mei and Shu Yao made their way out of the forest, he still didn't dare to move a single muscle as he remained fully focused on the small rabbit in front of him.

Although he had no idea how strong the small rabbit was, he felt like he was no longer the hunter waiting patiently for the prey to walk into the trap. Instead, he had become the prey who had walked into the trap…