### Chapter 2: The Change in Flowerless Palace (14)
It was already 9 a.m.
The cold wind swept over the Flowerless Palace, and the sunlight pouring down on the ground should have felt warm and gentle, giving a sense of spring’s anticipation.
But at that moment, basking in the sunshine, Lin Nan and her two companions felt a chilling wave wash over their bodies, stiffening them like a trio of frozen statues.
They had just confirmed thrice:
The entire Flowerless Palace was indeed devoid of any people.
According to Fatty, even the underground palace, where last night’s fierce conflict erupted, was equally barren.
The ground bore only faint bloodstains, almost like a subtle announcement that Fatty wasn’t lying after all.
The Great Palace Master’s coffin was still there.
Fatty heaved and pushed the coffin lid open. Just as he had seen last night, the inside of the coffin was empty!
“Is this where you fell?” Luo Ying asked.
Fatty nodded.
The three fell into silence.
Since logging into this island, everything they had witnessed was so ridiculous it made their heads spin.
Luo Ying had been skeptical about Fatty’s claims,
but now, with the entire Flowerless Palace’s inhabitants vanishing into thin air,
although they didn’t know the reasons behind their disappearance,
the one thing she could conclude was that had she not come to the Flowerless Palace with Lin Nan, she might never see White Peach again.
Fatty grumbled, “It must be Ren Dan who kidnapped White Peach and fled the island overnight!”
Lin Nan frowned slightly. “Why would Ren Dan do that? Wouldn’t staying on this island and relying on its defenses be more beneficial for her?”
“Hmph! She must have guessed Master Sister would come to the Flowerless Palace. To avoid a direct confrontation with her, they probably fled in a hurry.”
Luo Ying shook her head. “No, they could have a thousand ways to keep me out. Running without a fight isn’t their style.”
Lin Nan shrugged. “Well, that’s the current situation, Master Sister. What do you think we should do next?”
This was the first time Luo Ying had encountered such a bizarre situation in all her years. She stood still, her head pounding, utterly baffled by why everyone in the Flowerless Palace had suddenly gone silent.
“Aside from this island, let’s check out the other islands. Maybe we’ll find some clues.” Luo Ying thought for a moment; that was the only thing they could do for now.
She had time; as long as she could find a trace of the Flowerless Palace’s inhabitants within three days, she could secure victory in the bet.
“Alright, we’ll follow your lead, Master Sister.”
The mood among the three was heavy and tense.
Not only were they worried about White Peach and the future unfolding situation,
but they were even more concerned about the purpose behind the Flowerless Palace’s sudden actions.
At that moment, they felt like a lone boat adrift in the ocean, aimlessly carried by the winds, unsure of where to head next.
Since Luo Ying suggested searching all the islands,
it was the only option they had left.
After leaving the Flowerless Palace on their flying swords, Fatty and Lin Nan exchanged glances behind Luo Ying, their worry deepening.
Just moments earlier, they had discovered that the system interface, which had been usable outside of the Flowerless Palace, was now completely locked.
In other words, the scope of the system’s restrictions was expanding, almost as though it was purposefully blocking players from entering this area.
If a player accidentally stumbled onto the East Sea islands,
once they realized the system wasn’t functioning, their first instinct would surely be to leave immediately.
After all, losing system functionality for a player was like losing half the enjoyment of the game. Who would want to explore a world without any system support?
Their first stop was the plantation island that White Peach had previously shown them.
As a crucial area supporting the Flowerless Palace’s status, how could it possibly lack guards? If someone came and harvested all the precious medicinal herbs, wouldn’t the Flowerless Palace be in tears?
But the reality was a letdown.
The plantation island was still deserted.
Those precious spiritual herbs that were usually treated as treasures were intertwined with an array of wild grasses.
Clearly, it had been a while since anyone had tended to them.
Discontent, the trio scoured the island for a while but found no valuable clues.
Luo Ying gritted her teeth. “As far as I know, apart from this island, the Flowerless Palace has over ten affiliated islands where many Outer Door Disciples work, cultivating rice and vegetables for the main island.
Right now, we must check each and every one of them. Just one little clue would be a success.”
Fatty and Lin Nan nodded in agreement.
Without the help of the system interface, they had no better plan.
The only silver lining was that,
the day before entering the underground palace, Fatty had kept the map in his field of vision to dismantle the war fog surrounding the Flowerless Palace, and later he just got used to leaving it up there.
Now, the map was still displayed in the upper right corner of his retina, serving as the only functional system feature so far.
“What good is a silly map?” Fatty complained.
“Don’t be in a hurry; at least we can map out all the East Sea islands now. If any players want to come exploring later, you could sell the map and make a few bucks.”
Upon hearing that he could make money, Fatty’s mood improved a little.
This round of searching consumed their entire day.
Compared to before, they finally made some progress.
These affiliated islands showed clear signs of having been hastily abandoned compared to the main island.
Aside from the absence of people, both the internal and external environments of the Flowerless Palace remained relatively clean. Even the cafeteria was spotless, as if they were preparing to hand the entire Flowerless Palace over to someone else.
On some of these affiliated islands, leftover food remained in kitchen bowls, and there was even freshly ground soy milk from that morning—untouched due to their sudden departure.
And just as the three of them arrived there, hungry and thirsty,
after confirming there was no poison, they divided and shared the meal.
Fatty downed his bowl of soy milk in one go and wiped his mouth. “Where in the world did these people rush off to? They didn’t take a single thing with them!”
Lin Nan added, “Yeah, if it were a disaster, gold and silver would be the first things on their minds. But I just checked a few dormitories, and any valuable items were left in plain sight.”
“If they weren’t fleeing, then what could be so important that it made them leave their homes of many years without a second thought, as if they were cutting ties and leaving no exit to turn back?” Luo Ying pondered.
The three fell into a moment of deep thought, still without any clues.
Lin Nan finally said, “The clues are still too vague; we need to keep checking. I was just thinking, maybe we should focus on… Wait, it seems we’ve been stuck in a misunderstanding this whole time!”
Luo Ying and Fatty turned to look at him.
Lin Nan slapped his thigh. “We’ve been unconsciously assuming that everyone in the Flowerless Palace, just like us, travels between islands on their flying swords.
But we forgot that those Outer Door Disciples, and those people Fatty saw in the cave, they can’t fly!”
Fatty jumped in, “So it means they must have used boats to leave the islands!”
“Exactly! If we hadn’t been searching islands from the start but had concentrated on the vast ocean instead, we might have spotted their tracks on the water.”
Luo Ying, “…”
Why didn’t she think of that back then?
…
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