After extensive investigation, Long Miaomiao was mostly certain that the barrier surrounding the university, regardless of who had set it up, was already very weak.
This meant one thing.
The barrier was as fragile as a piece of paper, likely to break with a single poke.
Whether Ye Tiancheng had arrived or not, the entity behind this, no matter how many years it had been recuperating, had been imprisoned here for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years. It might not take much effort for it to break free from its restraints and regain its freedom, which would be just around the corner.
That time would definitely not be long.
What the entity would do once it broke free was unknown, but Ye Tiancheng and the others could not afford to take that chance.
They had to completely stifle the danger in its infancy, before it erupted.
Otherwise, the consequences would be unbearable for them, and they would inevitably gain an extremely powerful enemy.
"Strike while the iron is hot," is an age-old saying.
Taking advantage of someone's weakness, whether for good or bad people, was something that should be done when dealing with enemies, with no reason to let up.
After all, if they didn't die, it would be their turn to die.
Ye Tiancheng felt a sense of pressure.
This feeling was more dangerous than when he had interacted with and confronted Gui Hu A Zi.
Gui Hu A Zi hadn't harbored significant hostility towards Ye Tiancheng at first. Or rather, the entity hadn't wanted to fight Ye Tiancheng to the death. If a mutually beneficial outcome could be achieved, there was no need to oppose Ye Tiancheng.
Ye Tiancheng felt that Gui Hu A Zi had truly developed an extremely strong aversion towards him and had revealed killing intent.
That was... still because of Xiao Hu Li.
Xiao Hu Li was closely related to Gui Hu A Zi; in fact, they had originally been one entity, with Gui Hu A Zi being the main body. Xiao Hu Li's betrayal of its main body and choice to side with Ye Tiancheng was likely the ultimate reason Gui Hu A Zi was completely enraged by Ye Tiancheng and his group.
Ye Tiancheng felt a bit wronged, but he wouldn't say a word more.
After all parties had been working diligently for some time, everyone reconvened. It was mainly Ye Tiancheng and Nie Chongyang's people, and they had no intention of inviting Qiao Zhanyuan.
Their attitude towards Qiao Zhanyuan remained cautious.
Ye Tiancheng didn't know why he was so vigilant, but sometimes, there was no need to pursue a reason or an explanation. When intuition arose, one should follow it.
At worst, he would be tricked by himself, and he would be a strong man again in eighteen years.
His instincts told Ye Tiancheng to guard against Qiao Zhanyuan, and Ye Tiancheng certainly had no objections. If the other party had made him suspect Xiao Hu Li or his brothers and relatives, Ye Tiancheng might have hesitated.
But when facing Qiao Zhanyuan, with whom he had no prior acquaintance, Ye Tiancheng's attitude might not be so accommodating.
Moreover, unusual occurrences often signaled trouble. Qiao Zhanyuan's emergence was too coincidental.
Unless it was ultimately proven that Ye Tiancheng was being overly suspicious, misjudging a gentleman, and frightening himself unnecessarily, and that Qiao Zhanyuan was completely innocent, Ye Tiancheng would never fully trust that person.
The cost of blind trust was too great, and no one could afford to gamble on such a possibility.
Ye Tiancheng always felt that Qiao Zhanyuan had some other ulterior motive.
He hoped that this motive was not a malicious one.
If some cultivation sects in the country had secretly fallen, cooperating with terrifying and destructive entities for their own gain, and if the official forces had not yet been able to assemble and become truly powerful in time, then chaos would likely ensue.
The matters encountered along the way had become increasingly difficult and had had increasingly significant impacts.
Long Miaomiao's incident had already had a wide-ranging impact, but fortunately, the entity hidden deepest was Long Miaomiao, the Dragon God belonging to the forces of order, not a wicked and malevolent being. Although the Mountain God had done evil, he was still manageable.
Otherwise, things might have escalated significantly from that point onwards.
At that time, Nie Chongyang would have had plenty to worry about.
This time, however, they were not so lucky. They could only win, not afford to lose, because the entity behind this definitely did not adhere to the laws of human society and would commit evil and harm people for its own benefit and desires.
Ye Tiancheng and Nie Chongyang exchanged information, which brought new clues, and together they deduced and planned the next steps.
Nie Chongyang had managed to borrow the travelogue that Qiao Zhanyuan had mentioned.
Those cultivation sects were indeed not easy to deal with. After confirming that the sect was unwilling to give face even to the special operations team, Nie Chongyang had applied to higher authorities, leveraging the influence of senior leaders, to finally borrow the travelogue.
And fortunately, all they wanted was a travelogue.
Nie Chongyang had brought out senior leaders, and at this point, to get the other party to agree, he had stated that he was not seeking more, but simply wanted to borrow a travelogue left by a senior of their sect.
After going through many twists and turns, they finally succeeded in breaking through the obstacles.
After the travelogue was taken away by Nie Chongyang and his group, it was first handed over to experts for appraisal. Once it was confirmed that it was not a counterfeit item but an old object from several hundred years ago, it gained evidential value.
Then, by reading the travelogue, they learned that Qiao Zhanyuan's account in this regard was indeed accurate and not fabricated.
The senior cultivator who wrote the travelogue, on a certain day several hundred years ago, while traveling, passed through a certain place and discovered an unknown entity there, acting tyrannically, oppressing the common people, and demanding their worship.
Furthermore, this entity had a very strong and perverse sense of amusement, most enjoying pushing humans to their limits, forcing them to face life-or-death choices, whether to choose death or to cross their moral boundaries, watching their despair like a cat playing with a mouse.
The local people suffered immensely but could not resist, so they could only choose to worship this entity to survive.
This senior was kind-hearted. Seeing the situation, he intervened to suppress the entity. He was unable to kill it, so he could only choose to suppress and seal it, finding a treasure to forcibly imprison it, preventing it from harming people again.
The entity probably didn't know that centuries later, the seal would loosen, and it would cause so much trouble again.
However, this matter was only recorded in a few lines.
There was nothing more.
It wasn't that it was confirmed the senior hadn't written more, but after Nie Chongyang borrowed the travelogue, he discovered that the travelogue was missing pages. The travelogue was incomplete, some pages had disappeared, and it was unknown who had destroyed or torn them away.
Nie Chongyang had asked the people of that sect about this.
Since they were willing to lend the travelogue, they didn't mind explaining a few things.
It turned out that the travelogue had always been incomplete, and had been missing a portion of its content for hundreds of years.
Given this, Nie Chongyang and his group had no other options.
However, since this had happened long ago and was a fait accompli, there was nothing more to say.
Ye Tiancheng and Nie Chongyang had never suspected that Qiao Zhanyuan might have destroyed evidence, as this was very easy to verify. Whether the travelogue had been torn apart long ago or recently was something that could be discerned, and it was still easy to differentiate.
Then, by carefully comparing the locations recorded in the travelogue with ancient and modern maps, and finally narrowing down the scope, the location where the senior had sealed and suppressed the entity happened to be the site of this university.
Although at that time, the place was already the size of a small town, and not very large, it was still a specific location.
But the current university occupied a vast area, divided into many colleges, and as a higher learning institution accommodating numerous students, its footprint was not small, and its area was comparable to that small town of ancient times.
And by sheer coincidence, the university's grounds were entirely encompassed within that area, no more and no less.
It was unknown who had such a keen eye to choose such a place, which eventually developed into a university town, with ripple effects that humanity could not possibly handle.
No wonder the students couldn't escape; they simply couldn't escape.
Ye Tiancheng had a vague feeling that the entity behind this might have some origin, and whether it was good or evil depended on the guidance it received, but it was inherently chaotic, without any concept of good or evil.
However, it had now been artificially colored, and the facts were set and unchangeable.
To put it bluntly and inaccurately, that entity could be considered an earth spirit or an earth elemental. The term "earth spirit" here does not refer to the goblins of Western fantasy stories, nor the bound spirits of Eastern mythology, but rather that the land itself had developed sentience.
It sounded absurd. To hear this, it would be like someone telling you that the ground you were standing on had grown legs and run away.
In this day and age, could anything become an elemental?
If Ye Tiancheng hadn't had the Nuwa Stone and a subtle, innate sense that allowed him to vaguely perceive some things, he would never have dared to believe such a ridiculous fact.
He didn't know how to explain it to Nie Chongyang and the others.
Ye Tiancheng's initial suspicion arose when he recalled the travelogue's mention that the entity had oppressed the local people, and had always lived there, seemingly appearing suddenly one day and demanding worship from them.
Worship was not something that just anything could accept.
Some minor spirits and sprites might impersonate powerful beings to trick people into worship, but that was all. Such minor spirits and sprites were not even strong enough to warrant suppression.
Cultivators with a bit of skill could easily kill large numbers of them.
Ordinary spirits and sprites dared not challenge them head-on and seek their own destruction.
And the need for incense and offerings meant that not just anything required it, and the urgency of this need meant that not anything was qualified to receive offerings.
Combining this with his intuition and conjecture, and receiving confirmation from the Nuwa Stone, Ye Tiancheng dared to affirm this idea deep within his heart.
Ye Tiancheng was truly troubled.
The hardest part was how to tell Nie Chongyang that the land beneath their feet had likely become sentient and was also causing harm. It was likely that during its growth, it had been influenced by negative aspects, which led to its current state.
For such an entity, environmental factors had a great impact.
Furthermore, once its nature was fixed, it became the most terrifying, because it was almost impossible to reverse everything. One could only choose violent suppression; non-violent non-cooperation was almost the only path available.