When she walked to Emory's guest room, not only was Emory not there as expected, but the two attendants serving him also looked worried and said to Elara, "Master Emory hasn't returned for two days!"
"After he went out yesterday morning, we don't know what he saw, but within less than half an hour, he came back looking very pale and quickly left again."
"Because you told us not to pay too much attention to his movements, we thought he might have finally found what he was looking for and left in a hurry."
"We didn't expect that after he left, he still hasn't returned even now."
Elara frowned. "Which direction did he go?"
"The East Gate. Master Emory hurried toward the East Gate yesterday."
Elara immediately headed to the East Gate with Uno.
The two of them flew across rooftops of varying heights along the street, fully opening up their senses to detect anything along the way related to Emory.
But even when they were nearly at the eastern city gate, Elara still hadn't sensed anything from Emory.
Instead, she spotted something surprising on the notice board by the gate — a continent-wide wanted notice for the "Thousand Faces Sect remnants."
The area around the notice board was already packed with people from various nations, all talking and pointing at the two wanted posters on display with different expressions and tones.
The Thousand Faces Sect was once a legendary sect that stirred up the continent single-handedly for hundreds of years.
Even though it had been nearly wiped out, anyone with some knowledge of the continent's history would know its name.
Elara stood on a tall rooftop.
With her enhanced eyesight from internal energy, she immediately spotted the two wanted figures among the crowd.
One of them was Emory's real appearance.
The other was a slightly older young man.
Below the young man's portrait were the words: "Thousand Faces Sect Remnant Mo Shengfeng — Reward 90,000 taels," with three blood-red characters marked "Captured."
Under Emory's portrait, only his identity and name were listed, but his reward was now "100,000 taels."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, these Thousand Faces Sect remnants are like sewer rats, incredibly tough."
"All the powers and nations have been hunting them for nearly hundreds of years, and some still survive."
People from different nations around the notice board were discussing the two wanted individuals.
Fortunately, Emory had changed his appearance before attending the Hundred Nations Banquet with her.
Back in Plumera, he never showed his real face in public.
Elara had also never told anyone his true identity.
Other than her, Uno, and Scholar Fu who was far away in Plumera, no one knew that the "Thousand Faces Sect Remnant" Emory, who had a 100,000 tael bounty, was right beside her.
Elara didn't know much about the Thousand Faces Sect either.
In the past, she had only seen a basic introduction about Emory through the System.
The reason Emory had fled to Plumera, in the southwestern corner of the continent, aside from searching for Scholar Fu, was because he was already carrying the title of "Thousand Faces traitor."
He had gone to Plumera to hide.
Elara had been too busy cleaning up Plumera at the time to pay much attention to his background.
Now, hearing the people around her talk about the Thousand Faces Sect and the wanted notice, Elara listened closely.
"Tch! Don't talk nonsense. If you haven't studied the continent's history, don't speak carelessly. The Thousand Faces Sect was besieged by the combined powers of the continent, but that was hundreds of years ago. After that, the Thousand Faces Sect was nearly wiped out.
Over ninety percent of its disciples died, and the rest only managed to survive by changing their identities. Since then, the powerful factions that once targeted them haven't bothered chasing them down anymore. After all, the people of the Thousand Faces Sect are too skilled at disguising themselves.
Once they blend into a crowd, they vanish like fish into the sea. Who has the time and energy to hunt them one by one? Unless they come out and stir up trouble again, ha. That time would be better spent elsewhere."
That said, the remnants of the Thousand Faces Sect are indeed very troublesome. The most recent incident was about two hundred years ago, right? Some leftover member couldn't stand living in obscurity and stirred up chaos in a second-tier kingdom.
Tch, that second-tier kingdom was really unfortunate. "What's there to be afraid of? After the Thousand Faces Sect was destroyed, the remnants became like rats in the gutter.
They can only hide in the shadows and never gained power again. Even if they occasionally show their faces, don't they get wiped out quickly?" "Then what's with this sudden wanted order?
Are the remnants of the Thousand Faces Sect restless again and want to cause more chaos? Tch, disgusting. Why weren't they wiped out sooner?
They're even more revolting than cockroaches!" "That's true. But this time, these two remnants aren't just being hunted by external forces.
What surprised me is that they're also being hunted by their own group. Heh, these two were labeled as abandoned traitors by their fellow remnants!" "Huh? What do you mean?
Surrounded from inside and out? Their own people want them dead too? Tch, what kind of crime did they commit?" "Look. These two in the portraits.
I received intel saying they're considered traitors by other Thousand Faces remnants!" "Traitors?! Haha. Among a bunch of gutter rats barely surviving, there are even traitors?!
Tch, they were already filthy and disgraceful. Now they're no better than beasts! What kind of 'earth-shattering' thing did they do?"
"These two traitors apparently ignored certain rules set by the remnants. They deliberately plotted and caused the deaths of many former sect members.
They've formed a blood feud with the rest of the Thousand Faces remnants!" And about a year ago, did you know that three third-tier kingdoms in the northern part of the continent were destroyed overnight?
Tch tch, the scene back then was brutal. Almost all the royals of those three third-tier northern kingdoms were wiped out! Blood flowed through the entire palace.
The corpses were piled into mountains! It was so gruesome that even executioners would vomit at the sight. It was nearly like hell!"
"And apparently, this inhumane massacre was committed by those two traitor remnants of the Thousand Faces Sect!" "What?! My god! Tch! The Thousand Faces people really all deserve to die!
But… that was still the royal palaces of three kingdoms! No matter how good those two are at disguise, could they really be that brutal?"
"Also, besides their disguise skill, the Thousand Faces Sect isn't known for strong combat ability, right?" "Tch! What do you know?! It's true their fighting ability has always been weak.
But why were they able to stir up chaos in the continent for centuries?! Because their abilities always got them powerful backers!" "Behind those three third-tier kingdoms were second-tier dominant nations!
And now that even those second-tier nations have issued continent-wide wanted orders for these two traitors, it means these two definitely allied themselves with some demonic forces! Otherwise, how could two mere remnants escape the hunt of powerful countries?"
The speaker lowered his voice and said, "Come to think of it, hasn't the remnant faction of the Dark Sky Hall been active around the continent lately too?
For those two to wipe out three royal families in one night, they must have had backing from some extremely evil forces! Maybe even support from what's left of the Dark Sky Hall!"
"Oh my ancestors! The Thousand Faces remnants are already hard enough to deal with. If they really joined forces with the Dark Sky Hall remnants... Heavens, I don't even want to imagine what the future of the continent will look like.
Will we face another age of endless darkness? Could the Dark Sky Hall actually be on the verge of revival? That's a force even more terrifying than the current Hall of Yellow Springs!"