"He already gave Leo Li a death order—he has to get a Spell Stone for the teleportation array from Marcus Xuanchen," Sean Shaw said. "If he can't, then he can forget about being Young Lord Li Ao."
"Then he should be able to get it..." Lucia Lu said.
The group waited at the entrance.
They waited a long time, but Leo Li never showed up.
The Celestial Emperor personally contacted him with a Messenger Charm. Leo Li said he'd already found Marcus Xuanchen, got the Spell Stone, and was on his way.
But hearing that just made Lucia Lu even more uneasy.
She wasn't the only one feeling uneasy, either.
Sean Shaw sent her a message: "Let's have the Eternal Wishfish take us in one more time, just in case something goes wrong inside."
Lucia Lu nodded. "Okay! I just can't shake this bad feeling."
The two quietly informed the Celestial Emperor, found a hidden spot, turned invisible, and slipped into Hundred Blossoms Paradise.
Hundred Blossoms Paradise was as beautiful as ever.
The spiritual energy was as rich as ever.
But as soon as Lucia Lu stepped inside, she sensed something was off.
Looking closely, the flowers and grass were lush, but she couldn't spot anything wrong.
"Do you feel like something's off?" Lucia Lu asked.
"It's too quiet," Sean Shaw said. "Not even birds or insects."
"Exactly!" Her heart sank, and she rushed toward the White Pavilion as fast as she could.
The once lively songs and dances had vanished without a trace.
There wasn't a single person in sight.
Not only was there no one, even the soft, suggestive curtains were gone, and inside it looked just like a regular mortal restaurant.
"They must've gotten wind of it ahead of time and moved everyone out!" Lucia Lu said.
Sean Shaw said, "Your Qilin Clan has some kind of searching technique, right? Try it—maybe you can still find someone in here."
Lucia Lu nodded and cast the searching technique.
Hundred Blossoms Paradise wasn't huge, so her spell could cover the whole place.
She found no one in any other direction.
Only in the northeast corner, there were quite a few people.
The two of them teleported over and saw a scene that made their blood run cold.
The ground was littered with broken flowers and fallen leaves.
All those once-lively Flower Fairies had had their spiritual veins severed, their lives snuffed out, and they'd reverted to their original forms.
There were also more than a dozen corpses of human women.
They must've been brought in here.
Dozens of human-shaped demon beasts were gathering up the corpses—both people and flowers—dousing them with oil, getting ready to burn everything.
Lucia Lu struck with her palm, blasting those demon beasts flying with her divine power. They crashed to the ground all over the place.
"Bastards!" She grabbed one at random. "You actually killed every last Flower Fairy in here!"
"Mercy, High God! Mercy!" The demon beast trembled in terror. "We don't know anything! We swear we don't know a thing!"
Lucia Lu slapped him across the face. "You'll know soon enough!"
Just so happened, she'd won a big bundle of Immortal Binding Rope last time she hunted demon beasts in the Primeval Demon Wilds.
She whipped them all out in one go and tied up every last demon beast, stringing them together.
Looking back, she saw Sean Shaw just standing there, recording everything with a Clarity Charm.
"Why are you recording this? Help out, will you? Don't let them get away," Lucia Lu said.