Death... and me

Roan took the pendant out of his robe so that they could all see it.

"Malaka, do you know anything about it?"

Malaka shook her head in response as she replied.

"Calina didn't say anything about this ability."

Rean pondered a bit when he thought about a possibility. He then focused on the Soul Gem Dimensional Realm.

'Sister Orb, I believe there is a Sealed Array inside this thing that seems to be using the pendant's material. Can you analyze it?'

[There seems to be one indeed. The formation inside is quite highly leveled. But if it is just to find its use, I shouldn't take long. As for how to operate it, that will take a lot more time.]

Rean nodded. Only now when it showed this reaction did he notice that it might have a Sealed Array inside.

Roan also heard Rean and Sister Orb's words, so he waited as well. Of course, Malaka didn't know that.

"Rean, Roan, the light of the pendant seems to be shining in that direction, no?"

Rean and Roan were taken aback for a moment. As far as they could see, the light in the pendant looked pretty uniform. It was then that they understood the issue. It was basically the position they were looking at the pendant from. They quickly moved to Malaka's side, and sure enough, the blue light seemed to be just a little more inclined to a specific direction.

"So... is this some kind of tracker?"

"What is a tracker?"

Rean smiled at Malaka and explained.

"Simply put, it is used to find the location of other things."

Malaka nodded as she looked at it.

"Can we go take a look then?"

"Wait a little bit. I'm just checking something."

A few minutes later, Rean got his answer.

[Yep. This is indeed a tracker. No, to be more specific, it is a distress signal Sealed Array. This pendant is most likely one of a pair. If the owner of one of the two is in danger, the pendants will activate. However, there is a range limit. If the two parts are more than two hundred kilometers away, the pendants will not react. I will not try to take control of this Sealed Array since it will take too long. Knowing its use should be enough already.]

Rean and Roan nodded. That was indeed more than enough for what they needed. Rean then explained to Malaka what he found about the pendant.

"So, Calina is in danger? Then we need to help her!"

Roan was still showing a puzzled expression in response.

"That doesn't make sense. Why would Calina give this pendant to Malaka in case she needed help? It would have been much better to give it to some other group with high-level cultivators. She didn't know about Tuve and Weren. Even if she did, there was no lack of 'much stronger' groups that would happily take the job of 'protecting the imperial blood' for her."

Roan laughed after hearing that.

"Hahaha! That's what happens when you don't have friends, idiot. You can't even understand such simple logic."

Roan narrowed his eyes. Just as he was about to ask Rean what he was talking about, he noticed that Malaka's expression turned soft. From the looks of it, Malaka also understood why she was given the pendant.

"What the hell you are talking about?"

Rean sighed and then explained.

"Isn't that obvious? First of all, Calina didn't tell Malaka what this pendant was about."

Malaka nodded as she touched the pendant with a smile.

"Calina wasn't expecting me to save her. It was the opposite. She gave me the pendant to help me in case I was in danger. She wanted to help me instead. That's why she didn't tell what the pendant's ability was."

Roan narrowed his eyes.

"Then why didn't it activate when Malaka was almost kille- Ah! The two hundred kilometer range..."

Malaka then looked at Rean and Roan with a pleading expression, almost crying.

"Rean, Roan!"

Rean sighed as he shrugged his shoulder and looked at Roan. There was no need to ask Kentucky since it would just follow them wherever.

Roan, of course, understood those two very well.

"What? That girl had three Peak Core Formation Realm cultivators protecting her. Do you think that we would be able to deal with something that they couldn't? Besides, something that could put that girl in danger most likely already killed everyone. Also, we already spent a few minutes here. It's a waste of time."

Malaka grabbed his hand and insisted.

"But... still..."

Rean patted Malaka's head as he also asked Roan.

"Oh, come on. Didn't you want us to train in life and death situations? This is just another chance. Also, there is nothing bad in getting the favor of the imperial bloodline if she's still alive."

Roan's expression got darker and darker until finally...

"Fine! She planned to help Malaka, after all. It would leave a bad taste if we didn't do the same. However, don't keep your hopes up too much."

Malaka smiled brightly after hearing that.

"Thank you, Roan!"

Roan simply nodded with his cold face and poured his Spiritual Sense inside the pendant. According to Sister Orb, the way to use it was to use one's Spiritual Sense to feel the location, and not really the blue light itself.

"Full speed ahead, let's go."

It turned out that Rean's group did not enter the cave in front of them but moved in another direction. Just another 4 kilometers away, they found another Decaying Cave entrance and rushed inside. They also noticed another thing. The Decaying Energy concentration began to rise even more.

Going back in time, Calina's group was already inside the Decaying Cave.

"It's just like the reports said, this Decaying Fog is a lot more annoying once we get inside."

Other than Valeu, Calina had two more protectors, a man and a woman. The man was called Silo Lavil while the woman was Erna Taran. As Roan mentioned, they were both at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm, just like Valeu. One didn't need to be a genius to understand that they were also part of the Imperial Family's subordinate clans.

"Princess, be sure to keep your Spiritual Energy barrier up all the time. If you see that you can't hold anymore, take one of the Anti-Decaying Energy Pills."

"There is no need to worry. This is not enough to force my hand yet."

While they moved further in the cave, Calina took out a Blue Pendant from her chest and looked at it. This one was identical to the one Malaka had. Seeing that it had no reaction, Calina sighed. The pendant showing no response meant that Malaka wasn't in danger. However, she also knew about the pendant's range limit, so it might just be because she was too far from Malaka.

"Princess, is there something wrong?"

Calina looked at Erna and shook her head.

"No, everything is fine."

Valeu, on the other hand, knew very well why she was looking at the Blue Pendant. He was the only one that knew Calina had given her other Pendant to Malaka. However, he didn't tell Calina nor Erna and Silo.

At some point, Valeu took out a jade slip and put it on his forehead. After that, he told the others.

"Right side in the next cave division."

The Imperial Family really knew the Profound Abyss better than anyone. Their maps were very complete, giving them an enormous advantage. Few had mapped this place as well as them. Of course, no one complained about that. After all, this place was prepared by the Imperial Family themselves. If they wanted to, they could have kept it closed for their personal use, but they didn't. That being said, everyone was already delighted to be able to participate. Besides, they could draw their own maps while they were at it.

Erna, Silo, and Calina also had the same maps, of course.

Valeu then stopped for a second and looked into the other entrance.

Silo noticed that, of course.

"What is it? Did you find anything wrong?"

Valeu narrowed his eyes before saying.

"I think I heard something... You three go ahead while I go take a look into this other path. I don't want us to be ambushed from behind."

Erna and Silo had no reason to doubt him, so they just nodded and proceeded forward with Calina. After all, they already planned their route, so Valeu wouldn't get lost.

Valeu saw the three of them disappearing in the fog a few meters away. The concentration of Decaying Energy was so high that the visibility of the naked eye didn't go as far as ten meters. Obviously, one's Spiritual Sense became more affected here. Even with his peak Core Formation Realm cultivation, Valeu's Spiritual Sense couldn't go past fifty meters either. Still, he didn't seem to care about it.

It was then that he took another jade slip from his bag and smiled. It was also a map. However, this one was different from Calina's group. He checked the contents of the map and nodded. Soon after, he took another item from his bag that looked like a black stone. It had similar energy as the Decaying Fog, but several times more powerful.

*Crash*

Valeu then crushed it with his hand, which released that energy in the form of fog. However, it was white instead. Using his Spiritual Energy, Valeu made the white fog enter the path that Calina and the others went in.

'Sorry, Princess. That's just how things are.'