Chapter 239: Zodiac Realm clues

"Disappeared?" Lin Fan revealed a confused look, "What do you mean by disappear? How can a realm just disappear one night? Also, isn't the realm still here?"

Momonga gave a sigh, but he didn't answer right away. Instead he asked Lin Fan a question, "What do you consider a realm? Is it the world itself?"

Lin Fan didn't quite understand what Momonga meant by that, but he still said with a nod, "Isn't it the world? What else could a realm mean?"

Momonga shook his head, "A world in the end is nothing more than a piece of dead rock, but a realm is the people who live on that piece of dead rock. For a realm to disappear, it naturally means that all the people disappeared as well."

Lin Fan revealed a surprised look, "But how can all the people on a planet just disappear without a trace like that?"

Momonga gave a shrug, "That is why it is a mystery, no one knows how it happened."

Lin Fan knit his brows and asked, "Just how exactly did it happen?"

Momonga continued his story, "Well, it didn't happen as quickly as I made it sound, but they did disappear in one night. It started with the Ruler of this realm, one night, he had suddenly disappeared. His retainers had tried to keep it a secret for as long as possible, but that also didn't last long until the entire court of the Ruler also disappeared in a single night."

Lin Fan still had his brows knit as he asked, "How can a Ruler disappear in a single night? Aren't Rulers at the top?"

Momonga shook his head, "There are still distinctions between Rulers. The Ruler of this Sacred Rock Realm was only a low level Ruler, so it is possible for him to be taken care of. However, for it to happen without a trace in a single night, there aren't many people who can do that."

Lin Fan then said, "Then doesn't that narrow the list down?"

Momonga shook his head again, "Even if it does, what would be their gain in doing so? The Sacred Rock Realm had tried to hide these facts, but when all their experts suddenly disappear, naturally it would attract the attention of many people. The Sacred Rock Realm had quite a few allies, so with all these powers focused on this one realm, there would be no benefits being exposed as the person who eliminated all those experts. All that it would do would put a target on your back since everyone would be afraid that they would be next."

Lin Fan knit his brows once again, "But that still doesn't explain how an entire realm disappeared."

Momonga said, "I'm getting there. The various different allies of the Sacred Rock Realm had sent experts to come help the Sacred Rock Realm, but in truth they were only there to inspect the resources of the Sacred Rock Realm. With all the different experts of the Sacred Rock Realm gone, naturally the allies had turned on them, but they did it tactfully. But the strange thing there was that after a week, everyone that had come to the Sacred Rock Realm had disappeared with the people remaining in the Sacred Rock Realm. Not a single person remained."

Lin Fan couldn't help being surprised, "Not a single person remained? But didn't those powers have some way to track their experts?"

Momonga shook his head, "They couldn't find their experts at all and the strangest thing was that these weren't weak experts, so they all had Soul Jades left in their respective homes. In a single night, all the Soul Jades of these experts had shattered."

Soul Jades were jades that contained fragments of an expert's soul which would allow one to see if that expert was still alive. If it shattered, it meant that the expert's soul had also shattered and they were completely dead.

Lin Fan moved past all of that and asked, "But how does that relate back to the Zodiac Realm still?"

Momonga said in a deliberate voice, "Because the day everyone in the Sacred Rock Realm disappeared, it was the same day the Zodiac Realm had disappeared."

Lin Fan slowly asked, "Then you mean?..."

Momonga gave a nod, "If the rumours about the Ruler of the Sacred Rock Realm is true, it means that we might find a clue on the Zodiac Realm here. We might even be able to find another one of the tokens."

The tokens!

That was something that had been on Lin Fan's mind for a long time.

The system had given him this quest a long time ago and he had to find all twelve of the tokens to unlock the Zodiac Realm. So far, he only had a single token that he had found in the Inheritance Realm.

Even after casting out his nets and trying to find some information, he hadn't had much hope since these tokens were items that could open the path to a top tier cultivation realm. This was a world that was equal to the World of Elements or the Lich's Necropolis.

If these tokens had ever been found, they must be in the hands of the highest experts in the universe, which meant that this truly was a nigh impossible quest for him right now.

However, he had a chance to find one here on this realm! How could he let this chance go!

Lin Fan said in an excited voice, "If there is one in this realm, it must be in the legacy, right?"

Momonga stroke his chin for a bit, "It might be in the legacy, but I think that there might be a hidden task during this trial that might lead us to it instead. The Sacred Rock Realm Ruler had the awareness to prepare this trial ahead of his disappearance, which meant that he must have expected it. If that is the case, he must also expect the people who made him disappear to know about this, so he must have prepared a secret trial to avoid them from taking it."

Lin Fan nodded along with this, but then he said, "But why is this realm a high tier cultivation realm instead of a top tier cultivation realm then?"

Momonga explained, "The concentration of the energy in the realm is also affected by the level of experts found on that realm. With the disappearance of the Ruler and his laws, this realm being able to stay at the level of a Kingdom is already good enough. That just means that they had enough foundations for it to not degrade that much."

Lin Fan still had another question to ask, "So why did no one ever come back to this realm?"

Momonga asked, "Would you come back to a realm where people suddenly disappeared from? Everyone was too afraid to come back and eventually they all forgot about this realm. But it also seems like there was an inheritance that was passed down, otherwise how could those two have opened this trial?"

Lin Fan nodded at this. This was also something that he had been pondering.

Just why had those two cloaked figures been on this abandoned cultivation realm?

Still, they didn't have time to think about this right now, they still had to take care of the various tests that were in front of them to get to the next round before this.

Their talk had taken five minutes and during this time, Angela had already finished taking out four of the five pieces that she needed. She had just been waiting for them to finish their conversation before taking out the last piece.

Once the last piece was taken out, they were sent out of the test room.

When they had been sent out, there was no notification at all that they had received their points. But when they looked around, they found that on the back of their left hand, there was a black dot that had appeared.

When they tapped the black dot with their right hand, there was a screen that appeared that showed their points which was all at five right now.

Their goal was to reach two hundred and fifty points, so they still had to get another two hundred and forty five points each before they passed. However, it seemed quite easy if they were to base it on their previous experience. That one easy test was worth fifteen points and had only taken them five minutes.

So they quickly went off to find another test.

They chose another easy test this time, but the point value of this test was forty five, which meant that they would each get fifteen points.

They had thought that it would be as easy as the first test, but they were completely wrong.

This test had been called Find the Pieces, which seemed quite simple enough, but it was anything but simple.

They had been giving a puzzle that they had to find the pieces for, but the pieces of the puzzle were scattered all over the forest that was around them.

In the end, it took them over half an hour just to find all the pieces since the forest around them was gigantic. Even when Angela and Momonga had used their full spiritual energy and speed, it still took them over half an hour.

For the effort they put in, it wasn't worth the forty five points.

It was only after they came out and looked at the different plaques some more that they had realized their mistakes.