Ducart had a lofty expression as he stared at the group of young nobles. He could care less what they were scheming as long as they knew what boundaries not to cross. Sebastian hearing those words from Lyon, had a vague premonition of what was to come. He especially lacked in the aspect of martial training, that was why he always sorted to improve his mind instead.

“Hector, Willard, the both of you are to be careful. I think they are plotting against me right now.” Sebastian said in a low voice to the both of them. ‘Could this be what Ade was plotting?’ Sebastian thought to himself. ‘That can’t be, this woman is too careful to associate herself with wolfs of that caliber.’

Although Sebastian had warned Hector and Willard in a low voice, that did not stop his warning from falling to the ears of Ade who stood beside him. “Don’t worry, your trusted guards here should be able to protect you,” Ade said with a straight face. Sebastian couldn’t get a wrap on her words. He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or honest.

“A martial competition among juniors would bring more delight to this wondrous ceremony. Don’t you think so?” A bulky man who stood at the elevated portion of the hall said. Everyone with the exception of Willard knew who this man was. He was the currently leader and head of the Helden household, Darey Helden, and Asyut’s father. Ducart gave a pleasant smile as he nodded.

“As a special addition to this year’s event, we would have a martial display from our younger generation. Those who wish to compete should do so at the terret ⌈¹⌋ section of the hall.” Ducart said pointing to a desolate looking corner of the hall. Asyut bloomed to an elated state as he heard Ducart’s statements. He had tried various methods of dealing with Sebastian in the past, and they were all in vain. He tried assassinating him by employing a three-star assassin. That one move had cost Asyut about fifty percent of his total wealth, and to his complete surprise, Sebastian had still survived. The entire ordeal had made him severely depressed. If he couldn’t gain an advantage with an underhanded method, there was no other way for him to do anything against Sebastian. Until now, he had found a way to vent a little anger on Sebastian. Although he couldn’t outrightly kill him, he could still cause Sebastian to cower and hide behind his tail.

Asyut hastily walked into the terret section of the hall. He wanted to be the first one on the stage to make sure he could challenge Sebastian.

“Would brother Sebastian like to challenge me in this martial display?” Asyut directly asked. Asyut did not bother with false auspicious words. He did not care what others might think about his actions. All he wanted at the moment, was to make use of the opportunity he had gotten right now.

Sebastian hearing that had a rueful smile. His premonition had come to pass. “Brother Asyut, I Sebastian am not one who walks the martial path,” Sebastian said with a slight pause, before turning to face the Ducart Minya. “Although, I do not walk the martial path, I have recruited some of the best talents who walk that path. I humbly ask the house head to permit their representation of me.” Asyut hearing those words had a frown on his face. It was a well-known fact that Sebastian lacked any martial aptitude, which was one of the reasons Asyut had wanted to quickly challenge him. But hearing Sebastian’s diverting response, Asyut frame of mind quickly changed.

“The martial path isn’t one we all can walk. It is talent in itself for one to recruit a good follower. You and your fellow young nobles are permitted to send in a warrior to fight in your honor.” Ducart said in response to Sebastian’s statement. Ducart himself was similar to Sebastian in the fact that he had no aptitude for martial training, but his talents in commerce were what set him apart. He single-handedly raised the Minya family to its highest level of power and influence.

‘What utter nonsense. This was supposed to be my opportunity.’ Asyut thought in anger. ‘It’s a good thing I brought that fellow this time.’ Asyut looked into the crowd of people before stopping his sight somewhere in the middle. He made a calling gesture signaling someone to come forth.

“Brother Sebastian, would you dare send any of your followers to meet this challenge?” Asyut said with a little smirk.

As Sebastian laid eyes on the person Asyut had called to the terret, cold sweat broke on his face.

“Isn’t that Mailey of the Blue dragon academy.” One of the young nobles blurted out in surprise.

The Mailey character was somewhat of a famous mage within the entire Amber kingdom. Mailey was a young handsome mage that had gained some fame for his prowess in magic at a very young age. He was currently eighteen years of age and was publicly recognized to be at the 10th level of natural energy. Mailey was considered one of the very best young mage within the Amber kingdom. It could be said that within the natural energy level there were less than five people capable of beating Mailey in a fight.

Sebastian knew this time around he had encountered a real dilemma. If he refused to meet Asyut’s challenge, he would be viewed very poorly by the entire nobles present. After all, he was the one to suggest sending a follower to fight. And if he sent someone, he would most assuredly lose.

“Hector, try to hold out for ten exchanges before you surrender. There is no point in you risking yourself right here.”

“I think I should be able to hold out for that long,” Hector responded.

Normally, Hector should have the advantage since he was a warrior and fighting a mage in a one versus one battle. But his opponent this time around was Mailey who was particularly adept at close range battles.

“Why don’t I give this a try,” Willard said calmly. Sebastian was a little-surprised hearing that. He smiled and looked to Willard. In his mind, he knew Willard meant the best, but he was just oblivious to the situation. This was Mailey they were talking about, he was considered a once in a century type of genius. Although he was still at the natural energy level, everyone knew it was just a matter of time for someone of his talents to break into the elemental level.

“This Mailey fellow can be considered among the top twenty young genius of the entire kingdom. He is not someone to take lightly.”

“Then this should be an interesting match to watch,” Willard responded with a confident smirk. Sebastian laughed a little and nodded. In his mind, Sebastian thought that this might just be a good introduction to the top talents of the kingdom. This fight will help him understand the level of competition between the top talents of the kingdom.

Willard walked through the crowd and made his way to the terret where he met the indifferent expression on Mailey’s face. The crowd started murmuring as Willard got into the terret.

“Who is that fellow?”

“It seems Sebastian is not willing to risk a good subordinate.”

“This will end fast.”

The crowd was making comments of this sort. To a corner, Asyut stared intently at Willard. Something about the person on the terret seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. After a couple of seconds of trying to figure that out who that person was, Asyut stopped thinking about it.

To another corner of the room, Ade stood straight up as she saw Willard walk to the terret.

“This should be interesting. I will be able to confirm the actual strength of this Willard fellow.”

After Ade’s brief interaction with Willard, she couldn’t help but think a little highly of Willard. He was bold, brash and decisive. She couldn’t stop thinking about the level of natural energy he had used against her when they first met.

It had been nine full days since the incident at the Gerrett household, to Sebastian’s surprise, Ade hadn’t done much about it. She had kept silent about the whole ordeal, which was uncharacteristic of her. This brought about a vague sense of danger, as he somewhat understood Ade’s temperament. If she had lashed out, or at least demanded some kind of apology, he would have felt a little better, but she had kept quiet the entire time. She only sent out a random message inviting Sebastian to a function hosted at the Minya household. The function in question was her Father’s birthday, which the Minya family celebrated annually.

“Could this woman be plotting something against me?” Sebastian pondered.

“That cannot be. She and her family put wealth above everything else. They have their sights on my household.”

“So what could she be planning?” Sebastian was currently thinking about the situation as he paced back and front to the corners of his room.

“I have to be well prepared for all eventualities,” Sebastian said with a hint of boldness.

******************************

At the gate leading to Marquis city, a man with a tattered outfit could be seen walking to the city. As he walked, a vague sense of danger could be felt from him. He seemed lifeless but strolled with a certain charisma. The guards watched as this man walked towards them.

“10 silver coins to enter the city.” A guard said in a somewhat respectful tone. Although the guards cultivated natural energy, they felt a certain radiance from the man before them, which in turn made them all the more respectful. The man with the tattered outfit nodded and paid the requested amount. The guards watched as the man walked into the city.

“Where did that outlaw come from?” One of the guards asked as they stared at the man leaving.

“His natural energy eclipsed mine by a lot.” Another guard said.

“I wonder what level of natural energy that was.”

“Forget it, he is way beyond our level.”

The guards continued discussing the man for quite some time. As guards to the city, they rarely ever saw men like that. Usually, those with higher levels of natural energy were enlisted by the founder families of the city. They usually used their issued token rather than paying the toll fee. This was the determining factor of those that were outlaws and those who were enlisted warriors of the various founding families.

*****************************

Several days passed as usually, the events at Gerrett household seemed to have died out. It was finally the day of the function. Sebastian had Willard and Hector as his only company. Although Sebastian was nervous about this function, he wasn’t afforded the opportunity to miss out on it. He wasn’t scared for his life, but rather the second most important thing to him, his dignity. Violence within the borders of Marquis city was strictly forbidden. If any ordinary citizen attempted or committed any acts of violence, the punishments were of the highest order. The overflowing presence of the city warriors was always a major deterring factor for assassinations and things of that sort. Sebastian was convinced that Ade had something in plan for him, something that she would use to vent her anger.

Sebastian lead Hector and Willard to the Minya household. As the approached the gates of the household, an intricate pattern of a blue soaring dragon could be emphatically seen on the massive gates leading to the Minya household. From the attire of the warriors to the painting and construction of the buildings, one had to say, the Minya family lived up to their reputation of being the wealthiest household within Marquis city. The exquisite layout of the mansion was a sight to behold. The four columns that lead to the mansion had four different dragons carved onto it. It was clear to see that within Marquis city, not even the Marquis household could compete in the aspect of wealth.

“You finally made it here.” A feminine voice rang as Sebastian, Willard and hector were walked into the mansion. The voice had an irritating ring to it, it was one that brought a certain sense of disdain to Willard.

“I was beginning to think you were planning on missing my father’s function.”

“How can I do that when you specifically requested for my presence,” Sebastian responded with a smile on his face.

“Well, come with me. I’ll walk you in.” Ade said raising her hand in a manner that suggested Sebastian should grab her hand.

Willard and Hector followed closely behind Sebastian. As Sebastian and Ade walked, they conversed about several other things. They even stopped and socialized a little bit with the other nobles.

At a corner, staring viciously at Sebastian, Asyut held a glass of wine. Heavy breaths and an apparent look of disgust could be seen on his face. With every sip of his wine, his anger grew even more. ‘How is it this b̲i̲t̲c̲h̲ seems to favor such a loser.’ Asyut thought to himself. ‘Not only did she turn me down, she even went for a guy who had no interest in her.’

“Don’t look so dejected,” Lyon said with a calm expression. “Why don’t you use this opportunity to suppress this Sebastian fellow.”

“What opportunity? How can I possibly suppress him here?” Asyut responded.

“Don’t worry, I will create an opportunity for that,” Lyon said and walked away.

Lyon wasn’t particular in support of Asyut, he really did not care about the struggles of the other nobles. He was after all the next leader of Marquis city. What could he possibly compete for? Lyon enjoyed toying with people around him and shared this interest with Asyut and various other nobles. He wanted a little chaos to alleviate his state of boredom, and Asyut was just the right person for that.

A ringing sound came crashing around the entire hall. Everyone present turned their attention to the elevated section of the hall. “Thank you all for honoring my invitation to attend this event. Today I celebrate another year of good health and I would like to share this occasion with all my friends and family.” A tall slender man, who wore a gold colored robe eloquently said. He was Ade’s father, Ducart Minya. Everyone’s eyes were glued to this man. Ducart was a person that commanded the respect of everyone. He wasn’t a strong general or a shrewd politician, he only had one overwhelming talent and that was the ability to conduct business. His business ties were not bounded to the limits of Marquis city, he had connections around the entire Amber Kingdom. He was a man of great reverence.

At the elevated portion of the hall where Ducart stood, were other notable nobles within Marquis city. Everyone from Asyut’s father to Lyon’s aunt could be seen seated at the elevated portion of the hall.

“Everyone please enjoy the festivities today. I have invited the best chefs in all of the Amber kingdom, the best musicians, and dancers for your entertainment.” Ducart said in conclusion.

“Long live the head of the Minya.” A voice cried from the group of young nobles. This voice was none other than Lyon, the future leader of the Marquis household.

“House head, I would like to offer a special tribute for this function. How about we the younger generation host a martial competition on your behalf.” Lyon said with a slight bow. His action seemed innocent to almost everyone, but those who could see through his act knew he was an arrogant and troublesome person. All he really cared about was finding ways of creating strife.

“House head, we the younger generation would be honored to put on a display in your honor.” Asyut quickly added from a different corner. Asyut knew exactly what Lyon had in mind, this was the opportunity to suppress Sebastian he had talked about. He would be a fool if he couldn’t take advantage of it.

1. N/a

Willard heard some footsteps and turned to the direction it came from. He noticed two people walking towards him. One was Sebastian, who had an amiable smile, and the other was a female who Willard had not seen before. She had long inky black hair, and an oval shaped face. She wore a beautiful light blue dress which made her seem like a fairy. The woman’s features were perfectly highlighted, her eyes were large which gave a sense of innocence, and her smile was beautiful enough to raise the hearts of ten kings. In all, one could say she was a beautiful woman who had an air nobility.

“Good to see you friend,” Sebastian said as he brimmed with a smile

“You as well,” Willard responded.

“This is my good friend Ade Minya, the future heir to the Minya household,” Sebastian said while holding Ade’s hand as he showed a forced smiled. “I finally convinced her to come for a visit.”

“Its pleasure to meet you. My name is…” Willard was saying before he was cut short by Ade.

“Willard! I know. Sebastian here has told me about you. He says you are a valiant warrior who saved his life.”

“Do tell, what level of cultivation have you reached?” Sebastian hearing this was in complete shock. Although he knew Ade was an innately proud woman, he never expected her to be so direct and rude. It was common knowledge not to ask a cultivation experts directly of their rank, and to do it right in this situation was a clear insult to both Willard and Sebastian.

“Come now. Why don’t I show you the purple cotique flower I was telling you about.” Sebastian said in an effort to change the subject. He had a fake smile on as he tried to lead Ade away. Sebastian had a solemn expression as he stared at Willard, one could tell that Sebastian felt very responsible for the situation.

“Dear, let him speak. You might be convinced of his martial prowess, but I would like to know why you favor this youth.” Ade responded brazenly.

“Hahaha.” Willard laughed. “Why tell, when I can show you.”

Immediately after he finished his sentence, Willard released a large amount of natural energy from his body and directed it at Ade. The force of the natural energy caused Ade to stumble to the floor, her hair was a mess, her clothing and body were covered in brownish dirt. Sebastian stared in awe before he broke into laughter. Although he was angry at Ade, there was no way he could have reprimanded her. Her authority and influence far outmatched his own. But who could have thought that Willard would react like he had done. Sebastian subconsciously felt, even more, veneration towards Willard. He was impressed that Willard reacted without any hesitation.

“Be careful, the floor is a little slippery,” Sebastian said after laughing. Ade’s personal guards rushed to her side.

Although Willard had previously been on the reserved side while he interacted with Gerrett family, he had no intentions of showing restraint when he was offended. He decided not to directly harm Ade because of his environment. He wasn’t planning on creating a new enemy for the Gerrett family.

“You. You. How dare you? Guards arrest that man.”

“Do you actually plan on arresting my guest in my house?” Sebastian angrily said.

“You slipped and fell. No one is to blame for that.”

Willard was in complete shock seeing Sebastian’s reaction. When he acted, he had done so with every expectation of a latch back from Sebastian. From Sebastian’s comments, Willard could tell there was more to the whole situation.

“Hmmph” Ade sneered. She angrily turned to leave. She directed her guards and personal aid out of the Gerrett household. It did not take long before Ade and her group left.

“I seem to have caused you some problems,” Willard said.

“To be honest, I am not really interested in that woman. She is only interested in me because of her family’s interest in mine.”

“I can’t do much about it because we still need the support of the Minya family.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you did not go too far because there would be no way I could protect you.”

“Let’s not talk about this anymore. Let me show you something interesting.” Sebastian said directing Willard to the main house.

**************************

At some random restaurant in Marquis city, a middle-aged woman was singing to an audience. Her audience was entirely made up of just men who seemed to be in a trance as they listened to her song. Everyone, including the waiters, cooks and the manager, all gave their undivided attention to the woman. Their expression appeared blissful. They all fixed their gaze and attention at the woman. The women’s silky brown hair dangled as she danced and sang. She had a condescending smile, as she looked at her audience.

After a couple of minutes of performing, she abruptly stopped. “What a bunch of idiots.” She said as she proceeded to take a seat. Right at this point, everyone present in the restaurant was in a daze. If a mage was present at the restaurant, the mage would have noticed the resonance of the natural energy within the place. Without a doubt, the mage would realise these men were under a spell.

“It did not even take up to ten minutes for them to fall under my spell.” She said as she sat.

“Actually, I should be thankful. Hopefully, they all have fat wallets.”

The woman got back to her feet and made a weird sound. As the men all heard that sound, they all reached for their wallets. The woman brought out a big sack and went from table to table ransacking all of their wallets. She did not spare even a single coin, as she wiped the entire restaurant clean of their money.

“Today’s work paid big time. Such fat cows.”

“Now comes the fun part. I’ll give them a special bonus”

The woman uttered more strange sounds and watched the men move about. After about five minutes of orchestrating, she stopped making the strange sounds and busted out laughing. After having her fill of laughter, she left the restaurant. If anyone was to come into the restaurant right at that moment, they would see a bunch of grown men completely naked and all in weird positions.

The manager of the restaurant had it worse, the woman made him lay on a table completely naked, while a waiter was in a position that made it seem like he was about to spank the manager. After a couple of minutes after the woman left, everyone in the restaurant got back to their usual self. A loud sound of someone being smacked was heard. After getting control of their body, the waiter hand was in motion and smacked the managers bare bottom ruthlessly. The manager jumped out of the table, massaging his bottom. A large red palm mark could be seen as the manager ran off to the corner. Immediately anger and shame filled the entire restaurant, no one was as angry as the manager who got it worse.

“What the hell is going on.” The customers yelled.

“My money is gone.”

“My entire month’s salary.” One customer yelled.

“Manager you need to explain this.”

Off at the corner of the street, the woman stared back at the restaurant and chuckled. As she walked, her hair was slowly changed from brown to black.

1. N/a

In the middle of the forest, noises could be heard with the incessantly increasing sounds of footsteps. To the less informed, it might sound like the rhythmic steps of a marching army, but to those that were in the forest, it was a full-on search for an escaped captive. It wasn’t just an ordinary escaping victim, but one that had something to do with the death of their companion.

While the torches and people were frantically searching everywhere, a shadow was running rapidly through the forest. Baya ran with all the strength he could muster, occasionally, he would use the martial movement technique and afterwards, he would switch back to running. Memories of the past month flashed through his mind as he ran. He remembered the strange creatures he encountered at the red lagoon, his time with the slave trappers. This was the first time he had ever encountered such dangers. His formerly docile life gave way to the birth of a new kind of mentality, one he planned to embrace permanently. Within this month, he had reaped something far more valuable than the past 5 years of training. He was finally a level 9 natural energy warrior.

************************

It had been two full weeks since Willard started focusing on cultivating earth elemental energy. Sitting in a crossed leg position, light brown particles could be seen circulating around Willards being. The light brown particles were the earth elemental energy drawn from his surrounding. Willard was in a deep meditative state, he was currently monitoring his process of cultivating earth elemental energy.

Slowly, his milky core was changing to a light brown colored core. Willard was satisfied with his current rate progression. The vibrations that were occurring while he cultivated, had increased to a much higher degree. This tremors caused Willard to pay even more attention to his core. Even with the experience of his previous life, he had no clue as to why the surrounding space of his core was vibrating.

While cultivating, Willard realized that it was getting increasingly difficult to change the milky natural core to that of a brown elemental core. He knew right now, he had reached the peak of level 2 elemental energy. Willard increased his focus and forcefully pushed the earth elemental energy to his core. After about an hour of forcefully sucking in the earth elemental energy, a cracking sound came from his core, and just afterwards a slight ripple of earth elemental energy flowed outward. Right at this point, Willard had broken through to the 3rd level of earth elemental energy.

Willard had a confused look on his face, as he thought back to the moment of his breakthrough. He noticed a strange ruby red aura appear for a split second before it vanished into thin air. He was confused as to what had happened, he even came to the conclusion he probably saw wrong. While that strange event was occurring, Willard failed to notice a slight greenish glow on the ring his father had given him as a departing gift.

Willard opened his eyes and scanned his environment. He was happy with his current power increase. He stood up and stretched his body for a while, afterwards, he proceeded to leave his room. As he walked out of his room, Willard used his martial movement technique to make his way out of the living quarters. None of the maids noticed any movement, as they continued their regular routine. Willard made his way to the garden of the main house, he stared at the tranquil environment and bore into a silent smile.

“My movement technique has improved considerably since my elemental breakthrough.”

“There is no longer a dust trail when I use the technique,” Willard said self-approvingly.

The principles behind his movement technique had to do with earth gliding. While Willard was connected to the earth beneath his foot, he manipulated the earth itself to move him from one place to the other. The movement martial technique Willard was using applied the laws of the element of earth. When he was at a lower level, he couldn’t quite bring the exquisiteness of the technique. Even right now, it still wasn’t at its best, but none the less it had made major improvements. Willard could use the technique for a longer duration, and he could also cover a longer distance using it.

“I need to develop a low-level earth technique I could use at my current stage,” Willard said as he dropped into a state of self-thought.

Recalling his memories of his past life, Willard realized he had barely developed any earth technique. The earth element was not his dominant technique, so he mostly focused on developing techniques for the fire element.

While Willard was thinking of what technique to create, Arilis walked out of the main mansion. He was shocked to see Willard standing in front of the garden. Without saying a word, Arilis immediately walked back into the mansion.

“This damn earth element. There is no suitable technique I can think of at the moment. It requires a much stronger elemental base to create earth.” Willard said to himself, as he tried something out. The earth slightly trembled as Willard was concentrating earth elemental energy around himself. He seemed to be in a trance almost as if nothing else existed but the unyielding earth. While in this trance like state, Willard thought of the various techniques he had employed throughout his life as the god of destruction. Little by little scenes of the various fights he had been played out in his mind.

A fight scene, in particular, played over and over in Willards head. This was Thanus’s fight against the lesser goddess of earth Eris, She had used the earth to re-enforce her strength by moving the earth to form a complete golem form, in which she was at the core of the golem.

After a couple of minutes , Willard broke into a smile. “I was thinking about the whole thing wrong,” he said nodding his head self-approvingly.

“I am currently a mere mortal. There is no way I can employ an immortal level technique like creating my own earth.”

“I need to think of techniques suitable to mortals.” Willard said seeming to have gained some enlightenment.

“Rather than creating new earth like I did with the desolation rain, I can use the earth beneath my foot.”

Willard concentrated the earth elemental energy within five foot of himself. Slowly, the earth started to fracture and slowly pulling up the broken pieces of the earth into the air. As more earth floated to the air, Willard made a grabbing gesture with his right hand, squeezing it tightly. One by one, the chunked up pieces of earth that were floating around Willard started combining with each other to form a floating spherical ball of earth the size of a man’s head. Willard stared at the ball for some time as he observed the rough surface of the ball. After sometime, Willard made another gesture with his hand. This time, the spherical earth ball changed to an elongated triangular prism. This time around, the surface of the earth triangular prism were a lot smoother than the surface of the spherical ball. After observing the earth triangular prism, Willard moved his right hand in a slashing motion. The triangular earth prism flew to strike the earth itself like a nail to wood. Dust swelled up around the place of impact, and after a couple of seconds the dust settled. About fifty percent of the prism made its way past the surface of the earth.

Willard smiled looking at what had happened. He was currently pleased with the outcome. Willard straightened his palm, which caused the earth triangular prism to slowly break down to dust.

“I would have to test this technique against other mortals to gauge its level.” Willard thought to himself.

“It should be time I pay back some old debts.”

1. N/a

“A long long time ago, there lived a beautiful maiden with her lovely family,” Karin said, as she stared in the distance. She had a pleasant smile as she spoke those words. “The maiden had two younger siblings and an elder sibling. Her mother was beautiful and caring and her father was a good man, or at least that was what she had thought. Although the family couldn’t be labeled as rich, they none the less was peaceful and happy.”

“When the maiden turned 18, she had gotten many suitors who were interested in her. A young man, in particular, had spared no effort in his pursuit. He was the son of a jeweler and a particularly handsome young man named Wilsow. He had showered the maidens family with all sorts of gifts.” Karin said moving her gaze towards the chained up Baya.

“Although Wilsow had other wives, it was still acceptable. it was later decided by the maiden’s father that she would marry him. The maiden did not disagree with her father’s decision, after all, he was looking out for his daughter and family. The maiden was invited by her husband to be to come visit his family.” Karin said with a slight pause.

“Unbeknown to the maiden, she wasn’t heading for Wilsow’s home. Oh no, she was heading to somewhere completely different. You see, Wilsow did not want this maiden because he loved her. He wanted her for the sport of it. Wilsow took the maiden to a brothel owned by himself and his friends.”

“He had her in chains, just like you,” Karin said pointing at Baya. “On the very same night, he had his friends watch as he r̲a̲p̲e̲d̲ the maiden. They chatted about some points Wilsow had gotten for his conquest.”

“Wilsow held the maiden’s neck, like this. While he was having his way with her.” She said squeezing onto Baya’s neck.

“The maiden steeled her heart and stopped crying. All she could feel was a boundless rage with no means to pour it out. She stared fixedly at Wilsow as he r̲a̲p̲e̲d̲ her. Wilsow seeing this play out wasn’t too happy.” Karin said as she stopped squeezing Baya’s neck, who immediately started gasping for air.

“He took a knife to the maiden’s face and said he hated the wrinkles on her face as she frowned. Wilsow slashed her forehead multiple times, saying he was getting rid of her ugly wrinkles. He destroyed her beautiful face out of anger.” At this time, Karin had picked up her dagger and pointed it at Baya’s head.

“Don’t worry, I am not as sick as Wilsow.” Karin said tapping Baya’s chicks with her dagger.

After calming his breathing, Baya looked at Karin and said,”Is this your excuse for doing this? Are you expecting me to feel some sympathy for you? Because I don’t.”

Karin immediately burst into laughter. She stared at Baya with a look of surprise. She has previously had countless men in the same particular position Baya was, but none of them, until now, had ever been this blunt to her face.

“I don’t need your sympathy or an excuse. If anything, I thank Wilsow for what he did. I finally realized how the world works. Those with power control the faith of those without. Just like how I control your faith.” Karin responded with a smile.

“Well, for now let me have some fun.” She said as she slowly stripped Baya naked.

‘Will this be my fate?”’ Baya thought to himself as he resigned himself to Karins caresses.

*****************************

Quickly, a week went by. At this point in time, Baya had familiarized himself with some of the operations of the bandit group. His routine was the same for the most part, He was chained in place and instructed not to make a sound throughout the day, of which he silently cultivated the natural energy of the world. While cultivating, Baya had noticed his rate of absorbing natural energy had significantly increased. This was his sole-comforting occurrence of his current predicament. At night, Karin would make her way to him for sex and in some occasions, torture. As his encounter with Karin increased, Baya had secretly pried some information from her. For example, he found out the bandit group was waiting on some buyers to come pick up the slaves, which included himself. He also found out that the root of the living fire plant he had painstakingly gotten, was being kept with the rest of the herbs.

While Baya was silently cultivating, a slight ripple of natural energy burst forth from his core. Baya immediately opened his eyes to scan his environment. He noticed that the guards were in the same exact position, none of them were paying any attention to him. After Baya made sure no one had noticed him, he immediately blossomed into a smile. He had been trapped in the 8th level of natural energy for years, and right now, he had finally broken through that bottleneck.

After cultivating the natural energy of the world for a week, Baya finally had a breakthrough. He had increased his natural energy base from that of a level 8 to a level 9. Baya had an incandescent smile, now he had the physical strength to break his chains. During his brief period with Karin and the guards, Baya had gotten a rough understanding of his current surroundings. Although he had broken through to the 9th level of natural energy, he was doubtful he could escape if he charged through the place. After all, the leader of the bandit group was also at the 9th level of natural energy. Baya knew If he was to make it out of here alive, he had to escape in secret at night.

Baya patiently waited for the night. He was laying with his eyes closed, counting the seconds to his possible escape. He was waiting to hear the words that had terrorized him for the past week.

“Leave this place,” a feminine voice sounded. Hearing this, the guards immediately left their positions to take a walk. They were used to Karins behavior. Whenever she fancied a slave, she will spend most nights either torturing the slave or sexually exploiting the slave until the slave was sold off. This circle has repeated itself for so long, that they no longer cared about it. After all, she was the boss’s younger sister and a crazy woman, they avoided at all cost.

Karin walked towards Baya and immediately started taking off her clothing. She noticed an indifferent look on Baya, who usually had a huge frown when arrives. Karin had a wide smile on her face. She assumed she had finally broken the man before her, down. This was what she sorted after, his hopelessness. She proceeded to sit right on top of Baya.

“Have you finally accepted your fate?” Karin asked Baya in a condescending tone. She was elated that she had broken the man before her.

“Beg me for your life, and I might consider keeping you as my pet,” Baya hearing that still remained silent. Throughout the past week, he had gotten a good idea of the type of woman Karin was. He knew that even if he begged he would still be sold as a slave. Baya feigned a little anger as he moved his stare from Karin to the entrance of the enclosure.

“Good. Good. You still have some fight in you,” Karin said as she lightly laughed.

“Will you be missed?” Baya abruptly asked as he moved his stare back to Karin.

Karin was momentarily speechless. She had no idea what Baya was talking about. Why should she be missed? And why would he have asked that question? Karin’s original elated stated changed to that of anger. ‘Is he trying to scare me?’ Karin thought as she grabbed Baya’s neck.

“You lowly animal, are trying to scare me? It seems I would have to…” Karin was saying before the sound of metal being forcefully torn apart was heard. Baya plunged his right hand straight at Karin’s neck before she could utter a word. With the strength of the 9th level of natural energy, Bay could easily snap Karin’s neck, but he applied just the right amount of force to restrain and choke her. Baya flipped Karin to the floor and got on top of her.

“Let me ask again. When you die, will you be missed?”

Karin was struggling to free herself from Baya’s grip as she gasped for air. Tears immediately rolled down her eyes. She had never expected to be in this situation. She was always the one in control, but now she was knocking at death’s doors. Regret immediately filled her heart. If only, she had left this man alone, she might not have been in this situation. Baya reduced the for force in his grip temporarily and watched as Karin struggled to breathe. More tears came down crashing from her eyes as she pleaded: “Mercy please.”

Baya thought of the life the woman before him had lived. She had been betrayed by someone she thought was in love with her. She was scarred and prostituted away for a couple of years before her brother had killed the guards at the brothel and took her away. She had lived a terrible life, as a bandit forced to always be on the run. Baya felt some sympathy for the woman.

“Don’t worry,” Baya said as he consoled her by petting her hair with his left hand, before he snapped her neck. Dead silence filled the enclosure, the only sounds that could be heard were the flickers of the flames from the torch that brightened the place. Although Baya had felt some sympathy towards Karin, he had also been thoroughly tortured by her. A pitiful life such as the one she had lived could not be saved by just mercy, a pathetic life such as hers needed to be ended so death she could move on.

While Baya was imprisoned, he had figured out his bearing from the position of the sun, and now with the placement of the stars. He rushed towards where the herbs were stored and quickly picked out the root of the living fire plant. Baya extinguished the flames of the torch and quietly made his way out of the enclosure. Baya knew what direction he had to take, and he used the darkness to cover his movements.

After about an hour of walking around, the guards made their way back to the enclosure. They noticed the darkness but thought nothing of it. After waiting for a couple of minutes without a sound being made, they got curious and began calling out to Karin. They got another torch and made their way into the enclosure. To their complete surprise, they found Karin laying lifelessly on the floor.

1. N/a

After reaching the 9th level, Willard was satisfied with his current base. He had only used a month to reach his current level, which in itself was monstrous. The benefits of having a godly soul and overcoming a near death situation were quite apparent. He could completely breakthrough from the 7th level to the 9th level in one month. This was more than a rare fit to accomplish, it was simply inconceivable. One had to realize that Baya had been stuck at the 8th level for years, and Willard surmounted that level within a month. Although Willard could cultivate earth elemental energy, he also needed to get his physical body to the state where he could fully utilize the power of elemental energy.

“It’s time for me to focus on my elemental base,” Willard said to himself as he stretched his body.

After a couple of minutes of moving his body, Willard went back to the same meditative position. He immediately started pulling the boundless energy of the earth to his body from which it was directed to his core. If one had keen eyes, they would notice traces of brownish earth elemental energy surrounding Willard. The earth’s elemental energy was flowing to the ball-shaped core Willard had formed. Willards core formed by natural energy had a trembling sensation as the earth elemental energy combined with the core formed from his natural energy. As Willard continued pulling in the earth’s elemental energy to his core, the color seemed to be slowly changing from a clear milky color to that of a light brownish color.

Ever so often, the tremor formed by the strange ripple occurring in Willards core would slightly increase in magnitude. Although the increase could barely be noticed, Willard paid some attention to this phenomenon, which was how he noticed the slight increase. After observing the strange occurrence for some time, Willard had decided to stop observing it. There was nothing he could do to it, even if he wanted to.

****************************

The odor of wood burning harassed Baya’s nostrils as he was jolted out of his unconscious state. Baya slowly opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar layout. He tried to get himself up, only to find that he had been chained up in a bed ridden position.

“You finally woke up,” a feminine voice rang in Baya’s ears. Baya turned to see who it was that had spoken to him. To his complete surprise, he saw what seemed like a young woman mixing some herbs at a distant table. Baya’s eyes moved around the unfamiliar place noting the various other people that were also chained up and unconscious. He also saw two other men who stood at the entrance to the enclosure. At this point, Baya was completely certain of his situation.

“Slave trappers,” Baya murmured to himself. It would seem his luck had turned from bad to worse. The slave trappers were usually groups of rogues or bandits who engaged in the illegal slave trade. They had a ruthless reputation for their inhumane treatment of the captives they enslaved. These rogues usually hid deep within a forest, and changed their locations ever so often, making it difficult for them to be found and punished.

“Go get the leader,” The female said instructing one of the men who stood at the entrance. She walked all the way to where Baya was chained. She stared at Baya for a bit and smiled.

“Who would have thought we would easily find such high-quality merchandise, and a good looking one at that,” she said merrily.

“Although we had to expend some effort in saving you, it would all be worth it.”

“What is your name and where are you from?”

Baya hearing her comments, felt a surge of sudden rage. He was trapped by this group and this woman in front of him only sees him as a merchandise. He thought of how many ways he could kill this woman if he was free, but as things stood he was a captive. Baya looked up at the woman who was talking to him. The first thing that caught his eyes was the huge scar on her forehead.

“Why ….” Baya was about to speak before he was interrupted with a slap to his face.

“When I ask a question, you are to respond immediately,” The middle-aged woman said angrily.

Baya who at this point was already angry grew to a state of utter madness. He yanked the chain in a gesture that suggested he was going to attack. No matter how hard he yanked the chain, he was still attached to the chain and immobile. Baya wished more than anything in the world to free himself and kill the woman in front of him.

“It seems you do not understand your situation,” the middle-aged woman said as she grabbed onto Baya’s neck with her left hand.

“You stinking animal are now my slave.”

In Baya’s fit of rage, all he could do was spit at her face. He was angry but unfortunately, he was a captive. The middle aged woman had a strange smile on her face, almost as if she got pleasure from tormenting him.

“You still have some courage. Good. Good. I will take my time and break that courage of yours.” She said as she slowly pulled out a short dagger from her waist. She pointed her dagger at Baya’s face and was slowly making her way to Baya’s ears.

“Karin are you planning on killing the merchandise,” A male voice sounded in the enclosure. The male that had spoken slowly walked to the side of the middle aged woman. The man had a slim physique, with brown hair. He was the older brother of the middle aged woman and the leader of the group of bandits. Following right behind the man, was the two men who were previously guarding the enclosure.

“Not at all brother, I was just improving his behavior.” Karin, the middle-aged woman, responded.

With a smile on his face, the leader of the bandits, gently tapped Karin’s shoulder to suggest she puts away the dagger. He then proceeded to inspect Baya, who was surprisingly calm at this point.

“Don’t disfigure this one. It is very rare to find a merchandise in the 8th level of natural energy. I intend to make full profits from this one.” The leader of the bandits said. He then proceeded to walk out of the enclosure. The two men that were guarding the enclosure, had faces riddled with pity and indifference. They also started walking out with their leader. As the people who usually guarded the enclosure, they had witnessed similar occurrences in the past. They knew what fate awaited anyone that peaked Karin’s interest.

“Leave this place,” Karin yelled at the guards. One of the guards angrily turned for a couple of seconds, and then started walking off. They had experienced these familiar scenes so many times. It was easy to tell they hated Karin, but out of fear for her brother, the leader of the bandits, they couldn’t dare do anything about it.

After the guards had left, Karin slowly started taking off her clothing. She had a strange smile on her face. Baya seeing her entire naked body was stunned for a second. The only physical flaw this woman had was the scar on her forehead, and even with that, she was still beautiful.

Karin proceeded to sit on Baya’s body. She dropped her dagger to the side of Baya’s face and said with a smile, “Let me tell you a story.”

1. N/a

Willard crossed his legs in a meditative position and was getting ready to start his training. He was currently adjusting his state of mind so that he could be in a perfect mind frame for cultivation. Ever since his fight with Kota, Willard had noticed an increase in the level of his soul. He was prepared to put that experience to good use, as he got ready to cultivate natural energy.

Before Willard went into his final meditative state, a quick thought flashed true his mind. “I wonder how Baya is doing?” Willard said before he firmly shut his eyes.

******************************************

On the journey to the Red forest, Baya had taken every precaution possible to ensure his journey was safe. He traveled for a full day before reaching the outer perimeter of the Red forest. At this point, Baya could feel the elevated temperature of the strange forest. It was a marvel in itself that some plants could survive there. It was nighttime, so Baya decided to wait the night at the perimeters of the forest before he ventured into the forest. Baya eventually found a safe and secluded place to lay for the night.

When the day got brighter, Baya proceeded to venture into the forest. On his way, Baya primarily encountered only plant life forms that inhabited the forest. Baya was wary at first because of the rumors of certain beasts types that lived in the Red forest. After a couple of hours of walking through the Red forest, he had yet to encounter anything, so naturally he relaxed his mind for a bit.

From afar, Baya could see the outskirts of a bloody mist. A smile quickly blossomed on his face, as that meant he was about to reach the Red lagoon. Baya carefully walked into the mist and slowly proceeded to the Lagoon. Baya walked for a couple of hours before he realized that the earth beneath his foot increasingly got soggy, like the surface of a swamp. Moments later Baya could see a bright red Lagoon, beneath the thick clothing of the fog. Although the view of the Red lagoon had a peaceful and serene feel to it, Baya knew at the back of his mind that this place represented great danger. As someone who had never ventured to this parts before, he honestly had no idea of what to expect.

Not long after observing the lagoon, Baya located several fire plants growing in the lagoon. This red plants seemed to grow naturally in this harsh environment almost as if it had all the nutrients in the world. Baya slowly approached one of the plants closest to him. He stared at his surrounding as if he was expecting something to spontaneous appear. To his surprise, nothing had happened, the environment still had its usual tranquil scenery.

Baya reached out to grab the plant and yank it out. The moment his hands made contact with the plant, a loud shrill was heard. The noise had completely caught him off guard. He quickly looked up to see where the noise was coming from, but to his dismay, he could not see a thing. Baya started noticing that the fog that had been mostly calm several feets above the river were slowly descending. Baya wasn’t certain what that meant, but his subconscious told him it wasn’t good. So Baya reached for the plant again and aggressively yanked it out. Placing the plant in a sac, Baya immediately started making his way out of the lagoon, but suddenly he felt a strange tremor. Almost instantly, a root of a plant wrapped itself around Baya’s foot. Strange creatures emerged from within the descending fog. These creatures had a grotesque look to them and were shaped in a deformed humanoid form. They also had savage fangs for teeth and long elongated protrusions for fingers. The most surprising feature of these monstrosities were without a doubt their red wings.

The creatures flew at astonishing speed towards Baya, who at this point knew he was in real danger. Baya quickly pulled out his dagger and cut off the plant root that had entangled his foot. A strange red liquid gushed out of the severed plant, which rightly surprised Baya. Baya used the opportunity to utilize the movement martial technique in his bid to escape. Baya managed to gain some distance closer to the edge of the lagoon, but to his surprise, two other roots had instantly entangled both feet this time, as if they had predicted his movement, and were quickly spiraling up his legs. One of the creatures made a loud shrill as it came flying towards Baya. It used its nails to attack Baya, who was bounded by the plant, as it flew by. Baya tried his best to evade the attack but was still injured, as the creature had still managed to hit his back.

Baya without any hesitation used his dagger to cut off both roots that had bound him in place. After he cut them off, he used the martial movement technique in quick succession to try and escape the clutches of the lagoon. The creatures all continued flying towards Baya, who was running and using the movement technique in succession. At this point, Baya had lost his bearing as he ran in whatever direction those creatures were not in. The martial technique barely gave him the opportunity to move at a slightly faster pace than those creatures, who seemed unrelenting in their pursuit.

After running and using the martial movement technique for about an hour, the natural energy in Baya’s core was almost depleted. The thick fog which seemed to continue spreading as he ran, had stopped expanding up ahead of him. Baya decided to continue running in that direction. As Baya got towards the edge of the fog, he realized he had reached the top of a cliff. The creatures continued flying towards Baya, who seemed to have run into a dead end.

Baya looked at the cliff before him and saw nothing but an endless amount of trees, he was faced with two options of jumping or fighting against those creatures. Either choice would more than likely lead to his eventual death. After pondering for a few seconds, Baya decided to jump off the cliff, at least if he died, his body wouldn’t be mutilated by those creatures. After Baya jumped off the cliff, the sound of several branches breaking and an eventual thud was heard. The creatures continued their shrilling noise but did not leave the perimeters of the fog. Eventually, the creatures all flew back to where they came from.

******************************************

While Willard was cultivating natural energy, he concentrated on his core as he pulled natural energy in through his body and directed it to his core. The energy was slowly revolving and compressing to give the shape of a milky sphere the size of a golf ball. Every time the energy swiveled around his core, he felt a slight ripple of sorts. He couldn’t quite understand what was causing the ripple, but he quickly realized the ripple had no negative effects on him.

In one stretch, Willard had cultivated for two full weeks. This was the longest time he had ever spent in a single training session after his reincarnation. As someone who could activate and nourish his body with natural energy, Willard had no need to consume food. Willard had previously informed Sebastian of his plan to go into seclusion training, of which Sebastian had instructed Asilis to make sure no one bothered Willard during his training session.

After two weeks of training, Willard finally opened his eyes for the first time. He took some time to inspect his body, after a short while, a smile erupted on Willard’s face.

“I have already reached the 9th level of natural energy,” Willard said approvingly.

“Although I’m still in the early phase of the 9th level, it shouldn’t take me too long to reach the mid-level.”

1. N/a

Hector went back to the carriage, he detailed his findings to Sebastian and the group within the carriage. Sebastian decided it was best they discussed the matter when they were safe within the comfort of the Gerrett household. Along the way, Sebastian spared no effort in trying to invite Willard to join the Gerrett household. Sebastian had clearly witnessed the battle prowess of Willard, which made him greatly admire Willard.

For the rest of the ride, the warriors had paid great attention to their surroundings. They did not relax even a little bit as they all rushed back to Marquis city. During the ride, only Sebastian and Willard seemed to be a little carefree as they continued chatting. Willard had also mentioned his previous encounter with Asyut while withholding the details of what happened to the guards. After hearing all that, Sebastian was more determined to recruit Willard. Although Sebastian greatly wanted Willard, he also wasn’t going to be intolerant of his refusal. Sebastian would much rather retain a relationship with Willard than not.

Willard agreed to stay in the Gerrett household for the remainder of his stay in Marquis city. Willard had told Sebastian of his interest in taking the Blood Challenge, of which Sebastian had insisted he stayed as a guest of the Gerrett household while he trained and waited for the trials.

The rest of the journey was much smoother, they encountered nothing particularly troublesome as the raced towards the Gerrett household. After about an hour or so, the carriage came to a stop. While exiting the carriage, the first thing that caught Willards eyes was the image of the Gerrett family insignia that was hung up high on the building. The banner had a white lotus flower with the name Gerrett underneath the image of the flower. The banner had an air of majesty to it, as it stood firm and clear. The Gerrett household was like an enclosed forth, it gave a similar resemblance to a walled city. At the center of the manor, there was a large building beautifully adorned with decorative pieces. This building was the main resident of the Lord of the Gerrett family. It also had a beautiful garden surrounding its entrance which gave a sense of tranquility and peace. There were dozens of smaller buildings scattered around the manor, which housed guests, workers, warriors and a host of other groups. At the sight of such a thing, one had to recognize the might of one of the founding households of Marquis city.

Sebastian lead the way as he directed Willard towards the main house. “Young master,” an old man with gray hair said, as he walked out of the main house.

“How was your journey this time around? It seemed to have been a dangerous one.” The old man asked, as he intently stared at the strange young man, and the warriors that accompanied Sebastian.

“We will talk about that much later,” Sebastian responded.

“Oh Arilis, can you prepare a good feast for my good friend and I,” Sebastian said with a smile on his face. Sebastian continued walking towards the house as he led the way for Willard.

The old man, Arilis, was a little surprised. Although Sebastian was a generally friendly person, he had never personally hosted a stranger before. Even when he had other aristocrats over, he had never called them his good friend. From this, Arilis could tell there had to be something special about this young man who had some bloodied stains around his outfit. He knew his young master must have encountered some serious danger this time around.

“Yes young master,” Arilis responded.

Arilis immediately ordered the servants to prepare the feast. He had also personally led the servants as they went on to get things ready. A bath was prepared for Sebastian and his guest. A new outfit was prepared for Willard as well, seeing how tattered his outfit was. Moments later, both Willard and Sebastian had returned to a well-prepared feast. There were a lot of great looking aromatic meals spread across the dining hall. One had to know the founding families lived in abundance. All sorts of meals and assortments were present on the tables. Even the chief of the Yellow Hem village would most likely have never seen some of those meals before.

The warriors that had battled the assassins were also present. Sebastian had ordered them to join in the feast. Although Sebastian was a victim of an assassination attempt, he was also in a great mood. He had survived and made a promising friend. Although Sebastian wasn’t physically as strong as his peers, he made up for it with his wit and knowledge. Sebastian could tell from Willards performance, he was someone who had the potential to grow really powerful, and that was why he was trying to befriend Willard now. As the saying goes, an ally’s strength is also one’s strength. By gaining Willard as a friend, he would have gained another powerful ally. Sebastian, Willard and the warriors all ate and drank to their fullest. Surviving danger usually has a way of doing wonders to one’s appetite.

Later at night, the lord of the Gerrett family arrived home. Sebastian had a private talk with his father that lasted some hours. During that talk, Sebastian had detailed what had happened to him. He did not omit any part, including the previous interaction Willard had with Asyut. There was a clear sign of anger on Sebastian’s father’s face all throughout the talk. As they finished their conversation, Sebastian took the opportunity to invite Willard to meet his father. Willard was lead to the Gerrett family reception hall by Asilis, and as they walked through the main hall of the house, Willard could make out various paintings of several prominent Gerrett ancestors that were spread across the walls of the hall. With this, one could tell how long this household had been established. Their roots were comparable to that of the governing family, the Marquis household, but unfortunately, they have been on the decline for some time now.

As Willard got to the reception hall, he saw a well-built man sitting on an ascended stage. The man had a rugged appearance, with a thick armor on. The armor had the amber kingdoms insignia of a red great eagle on it. With this, one could surmise that this man was in the Amber kingdom’s army and from the looks of the armor, he held an important position. The man looked nothing like Sebastian, the man had short hair with a face full of beards. This man could be described as the personification of a warrior. To the right stood Sebastian who blossomed into a smile as he saw Willard. Sebastian walked towards Willard and said, “come let me introduce you to my father.” Willard nodded docilely almost as if he was a well-mannered youth.

“Father, this is Willard.” Sebastian said as he pulled Willard a little closer. “He was the one that saved my life today.”

“Willard greets lord Jayesh,” Willard said with a respectful bow. Although Willard had no idea how strong lord Jayesh was, but from the looks of lord Jayesh, Willard got the feeling that this man before him was incredibly dangerous. He wanted to make sure he got on his good side until he was strong enough to protect himself. Marquis city was vastly different from the Yellow Hem village, where Willard could almost do as he pleased. Here in Marquis city, they were countless people who could easily kill him at his current level. Willard knew when to be overbearing and when he had to retreat. For the moment, Willard planned on using the Gerrett family’s power and influence to protect himself while he trained and increased his power base.

Lord Jayesh nodded and stared at Willard with a look of appraisal. The youth before him greatly peaked his interest, because they were not many youths in the kingdom who could accomplish what Willard had accomplished.

“You are welcome to stay as an honored guest for as long as you like,” Jayesh said in a hoarse-voiced.

“Asilis, make sure his accommodations are comfortable,” Jayesh continued. Asilis hearing that nodded and responded, “Yes my lord.”

Sebastian took Willard by the hand and proceeded to lead him out of the hall. He took Willard to the front yard garden where they conversed for some time before they both went to their respective residency. When Willard got to his room, he prepared to begin one of the longest training session he had ever done.

1. N/a

Kota slowly turned, as he coughed out some blood, to see who or what it was that had stabbed him. To his surprise, he saw a condescending smile from Willard. Kota was filled with regrets for his earlier in-actions that had ultimately led to his current state. If only he had not underestimated the youth before him, and just killed him directly in the forest, he would have accomplished his mission and returned back safely. But as fate would have it, he was the one who ended up dead. Kota’s body slumped to the floor with a thud sound, his face was still covered with boundless resentment.

This event had utterly stunned everyone. In the face of despair, the tall muscular warrior had given up all hopes. He had even resigned himself to his death, but somehow a savior had appeared in the nick of time to save him. The last surviving assassin was the first to come back to his senses, he immediately took heel running. He knew he was no longer a match for the opposing side now that Kota had died. The other two warriors from the Gerrett family chased after the assassin.

“This warrior here owes you his life, Thank you.” The tall muscular man said to Willard in complete honesty. He indeed would have been dead without Willards intervention, and not just him everyone including his young master would have all died today.

Willard could feel the honesty and integrity of the warriors thankful appreciation. He nodded in acknowledgment as he stared towards the carriage. Willard could see the silhouette of a young man making his way towards him. The young man had a tall slender body structure, his face was well defined and handsome. His hair was strangely white as the cloud, his eyes were green as the jade green stones of the east seas. He was like a character out of a fairytale. One would have to admit this young man is very handsome.

“Young master Sebastian,” the tall muscular warrior said as he bowed to one knee. The muscular warrior was quite ashamed of his current state. He had been charged with the protection of the young lord, and not only had he failed but he was also saved by a youth. The tall muscular warrior kept on kneeling as if he was expecting some kind of punishment. Sebastian continued walking to the side of the warrior and tapped him on his right shoulder.

“What is there to be ashamed of Hector? You did your best and thankfully we survived.” Sebastian said as he walked past the tall muscular Hector.

“Thank you for saving us today. May I know the name of my benefactor?” Sebastian said while bowing. That scene had slightly surprised Willard because Sebastian’s appearance and mannerism were vastly different from the other nobles he had previously encountered. Willard could still remember the overbearing character of Asyut as he asked his guards to beat him up. What surprised Willard the most was the fact that Sebastian actually bowed to him. If Sebastian had only said his thanks, he would have found that normal, but for him to bow meant he did not see himself as a god among mortals. This gave Willard quite a favorable opinion of Sebastian and an affirmation in making the right decision.

“My name is Willard Wuldag,” Willard said in response to Sebastian’s question. “I had encountered those men while I was in Marquis city and decided to follow them in secret. Who would have known they had such terrible things in mind. Thankfully, your guard here was able to distract that one long enough for me to stab him” Willard said as he pointed to Kota’s dead body.

Sebastian hearing those words had a simple smile on his face. Although he was smiling, he was also deeply thinking about what Willard had said. He knew what had transpired wasn’t as simple as Willard was making out to be, but he chose not to delve any deeper into it. After all, he had only just survived this ordeal thanks to Willard’s intervention, and he wasn’t going to be impolite and pry any further. Whatever the case was, Sebastian had decided to get Willard on his side. Hector had a look of disbelief as he stared at Willard. He had originally seen Willard fighting the group of assassins before Willard had used their appearance to escape.

“I see. We are grateful for your kindness. How about we ride together since you are currently staying at Marquis city,” Sebastian said with a simple smile. Willard nodded in agreement and proceeded to follow Sebastian as they walked towards his carriage. While Willard and Sebastian were walking to the carriage, Hector was busy going through Kota’s belongings.

The warriors that had chased after the escaping assassin returned empty handed. The assassin had managed to outrun them without leaving a trace of his whereabout. Though they were not satisfied with the outcome, they couldn’t help but sigh in amazement of the assassin escaping prowess. From the choice of his path to his individual speed, it was well refined and seasoned. One could tell he was at least a one-star ranked assassin.

While going through Kota’s belongings, Hector had discovered a silver pendant with three purple stars embroidered on it. Hector was completely speechless as he stared intently at the pendant. He knew exactly what that pendant represented. Hector could tell that Kota was from an assassin sector, the purple mist assassin sector which was a very reputable one. It also meant that Kota had reached the third-star level, which was the most shocking thing to Hector.

Assassins within the Amber kingdom are usually ranked from the first to the fifth star. For an assassin to get ranked with a single star, that assassin would have reached at least the fifth level of natural energy, and have successfully completed ten unranked missions. For the second star level, the assassin would have at least reached the ninth or tenth level of natural energy and have successfully completed more than thirty one-stared missions. A three-star assassin would have reached the elemental energy level, and have completed fifty two-stared missions. As for a four-star assassin, there was no requirement on the level of elemental energy, only completing a hundred three-stared mission would earn you the title. After all, assassins had quite a difficult job. It was rare for assassins to successfully complete a hundred missions before their death. The five-star assassins were on a whole different level, it would require an assassin to have reached the saint level. In the history of the Amber kingdom, there has only ever been one five-stared assassin.

Hector knew how strong Kota was during their fight, but he had never expected him to be from the purple mist assassin sector or had reached the three-star level. After all, there were a lot of two stared assassins in the elemental energy level. Hector frantically searched kota’s corpse to find the assassination mission mandate, but he never could find one. Hector was surprised by the fact that there was no assassination mission mandate on Kota’s body, that directly requested for the death of Sebastian. Usually, most assassins would have their mission mandate on them everywhere they went.

1. N/a

One thing was clear to the warriors from the Gerrett family, and that was that they had been ambushed. “Protect the young master,” the tall muscular warrior said as he staggered backwards to try to tend to his wounds. The three uninjured warriors from the Gerrett family, all moved in unison. They spaced themselves to cover the front lines of the carriage. From the leftmost side, the warrior wielded twin blades. The warrior in the middle had a long sword, which the tightly held on to with both hands. The warrior to the right took out a sickle and connected it to a chain he wore on his body. From the looks of this standoff, one could tell that the warriors of the Gerrett family were battle seasoned.

Willard did not get too far into the bushes before he decided to stop running. He could tell that he wasn’t being followed and as such, this was the perfect time for him to try and recuperate. Willard sat in a meditative position with his legs crossed together and started gathering the natural energy of the world. Willard had a gentle smile on his face, almost as if he was in ecstasy. Although the previous battle he just experienced almost claimed his life, it also brought unspeakable joy to him. Ever since he regained his memory, he had never really been in true danger. He always had the ability to escape with his life, but his previous encounter was clearly different. If the warriors from the Gerrett household hadn’t been there, he would never have escaped from the assassins claws.

As the event that transpired flew across Willard’s mind, he was immediately engulfed in a trance-like state. His memory of fighting the Eurus, a chief god wind, came crashing through his subconscious. Eurus was fairly private chief god that resided in the uttermost east side of the nine heavens. Although he had no interest in the power struggle of the various chief gods, he none the less created a reputation for himself as one of the supreme gods of the nine heavens. Even with his might, Eurus lack of interest in everything was of the highest level.

After Thanus had won over the territory of Thandine from Zinus, he had immediately sent out his subordinates to go secure the perimeters of his territory and establish his prominence. Willard got word of a troublesome fellow, in the southernmost region of Thandine, that was a thorn to his subordinates. Willard decided to go to the southernmost region of Thandine, Thanus encountered a strange fellow sitting on a branch of a tree and staring into the distance. At that time, Thanus had no idea it was Eurus, and proceeded to expel this person from his ever-expanding territory. This encounter ended up as a fight between Thanus and Eurus. During their bout, Thanus realized how powerful a chief god of the wind element could be in a one vs one battle. No matter what attack Thanus used, Eurus was easily able to evade it. In his anger, Thanus released his ultimate attack, the desolation rain. In the wake of that attack, the surrounding previously serene environment was completely destroyed. The lake, trees and surrounding mountains were all but reduced to dust.

Eurus walked by to the location where the large tree, he enjoyed laying on, used to be. For the first time, during his encounter with Eurus, Willard noticed an emotion on Eurus face. A silky white ripple of energy was permeating from Eurus, who was clearly angry. In a fraction of a second, Eurus appeared before Thanus. In his hand was a short transparent blade. Eurus started attacking Thanus wholeheartedly, wherever his transparent blade cuts across, a hurricane would proceed in its path. Both Thanus and the lesser gods that came with him were all in awe at the battle prowess Eurus possessed. Eurus continued pressuring Thanus until he abruptly stopped attacking and immediately started flying down southwards.

With that confrontation, It was clear to Thanus that he was equally matched with Eurus, and Eurus having the advantage in speed. Thanus immediately stopped his expansion southward and marked that region the southern end of his territory.

While in that same meditative position, a slight ripple of natural energy escaped from Willards core and spread to the surrounding area around his body. Willard opened his eyes with a smile on his face. Willard had finally broken through to the 7th level of natural energy. He could also feel that with enough time, he would easily be able to break through to the 8th level. Before his fight with the assassins, Willard was at the bottleneck of the peak of level 6 natural energy. The fight with the assassins provided him a much-needed tempering of his soul.

Although Willard had made a breakthrough in the levels of natural energy, he was still quite weak and exhausted. Willard continued meditating to stabilize and replenish the natural energy in his core. At this time his mind was devoid of all thoughts, it was as calm and quiet as the floating clouds. He meditated quietly directing natural energy to his body for some time. Afterwards, Willard proceeded to leave the bushes where he had been meditating

During the time Willard took to breakthrough to the 6th level of natural energy, the fight between the assassins and the Gerrett family warriors had seen the death of two people. From the assassins side, the man who had been shooting the arrows was dead. From the Gerrett household warriors side, the man with the sickle and chain had died. Kota was in a miserable state, as blood could be seen dripping from the various cuts around his body.

Kota had barely managed to maintain an equilibrium in the face of the Gerrett warriors onslaught. “Damn that brat,” Kota cursed inwardly as he thought of Willard. If he hadn’t been injured by Willard, his group would have had the advantage, and not to talk of the extra person Willard had killed. Now there was just one other assassin and himself against the remaining three Gerrett warriors. It would have been enough to fight almost any other group, but the tall muscular warrior that originally got shot with an arrow turned out to be in the peak stage of the 10th level of natural energy. He was at the epitome of natural energy base, a step away from the elemental energy level and was incredibly powerful. The warrior easily wielded a great axe with one hand and was able to pressure the injured Kota.

At this point in time Sebastian Gerrett was watching the whole fight from the carriage and was quite panicked at the situation. This was the first time his guards had fought with a group this powerful. Sebastian couldn’t join the guards in the fight because he was much weaker than they were. If he did, he would only be causing trouble for them, since he was only just at 3rd level of natural energy. “Please anyone save them.” Sebastian inwardly hoped.

The tall muscular warrior charged forward to engage Kota on a one versus one battle, while the other two warriors ganged up on the last remaining assassin. The other Gerret family warriors knew they were in a bind for time, because the tall muscular warrior could only at most hold Kota down for some seconds before he would be eventually overwhelmed by Kota. So they instinctively knew they had to kill their opponent before the tall muscular warrior ended up dead. Because if that happened, then they’ll most definitely lose their lives to Kota.

As the tall muscular warrior got in close proximity to Kota, he powerfully swung his axe aiming for Kota’s head. As the axe drew closer to Kota, a mischievous smile emerged from Kota’s face. This was the opportunity he had hoped for. The most powerful of the warriors was within his attack range and was still drawing closer to him. Kota immediately activated the wind elemental energy on his sword and proceeded to attack the axe on its motion. As Kota expected, his sword was gently slicing through the great battle-axe and headed straight for the tall muscular warriors neck.

Suddenly, Kota felt something rapidly moving towards his direction, and immediately tried to move away. Unfortunately for him, it was too late. His body was already pierced through, from the back, with a broken battle blade.

1. N/a

Willard could feel the tense atmosphere at the moment. The men were staring at him with sinister blood thirsty looks. Unlike earlier, these men did not take him to be a threat, but right now they seemed to have acknowledged his existence. Without making any sudden moves, Willard was staring at the man who was holding a bow and arrow. That bow and Kota represented the most danger to Willard right now.

“Whoosh” the man with the bow, started shooting his arrows at Willard. It took the combination of quick reflexes and earth natural energy, for Willard to evade and block some of the arrows. Before Willard had any time to think of a counter measure, Kota had already arrived within an arm’s length of Willard. He attacked in a slashing motion towards Willard’s body. Seeing this, Willard immediately used the blade he got from their dead companion to defend Kota’s sword attack. As both swords crossed paths, momentary sparks could be seen for a split second before Kota’s sword started slicing through Willard’s blade, like a hot knife to butter. Willard quickly utilized his martial movement technique to evade the momentum of Kota’s sword.

Willard was shocked and at the same time, seemed to have figured out something. He finally solved the puzzle that had bewildered him the whole time. How did Kota discover his presence? Now he finally understood how it was possible for Kota to have discovered him. Kota was at the elemental energy level and specifically trained in the wind element to a very high degree. Amongst the elements one could train in, wind and earth are unrivaled in their ability to monitor their surroundings. Wind elementalist could monitor their surroundings for any unnatural resistances in the flow of the wind. The really gifted ones, could take this a step further and completely draw a mental map of their surroundings, detailing the different things around a certain radius. Gifted earth elementalist could accurately sense the vibrations on the earth. They could easily tell what was natural and what was unnatural, like the movement people and animals, through the rhythm of the vibrations they sensed. This special effect made it especially difficult for anyone to easily ambush people that trained in these elements.

Knowing Kota could sense him through the wind was a major problem for Willard. It meant that Kota had trained at least to the 5th level of wind elemental energy, and that a one on one battle would be severely disadvantageous to him. “Swoosh” another arrow was fired straight at Willard’s heart. The arrow seemed to contain the vast energy of the world, it was extremely fast and left Willard with no time to react. The arrow connected and cleanly hit Willard to the chest. The energy of the arrow flung Willard directly to the floor. Willard was laying lifelessly on the floor. His attire was bloodied and he had an arrow protruding out of his chest.

“Go get ready to ambush the carriage.” Kota said to his two remaining companions as he rushed to confirm Willard’s death and get rid of both his dead companion and Willard’s body.

The two of them were making their way to the bushes at the side of the road while Kota was heading straight for Willard. As Kota was reaching in to check Willard’s pulse, he suddenly sensed something was wrong and made a backward movement. Willard’s hands shaped like a knife was thrusted straight at Kota’s heart. Luckily enough for Kota, Willard had missed his heart and instead hit him in the abdomen. Kota had never completely let his guard down and continued monitoring his surrounding with the wind. That was how he was able to quickly detect Willard’s movement and save his life.

Willard had a look of displeasure in his eyes. ‘Why won’t this Kota just die’ he thought to himself as he tried to continue his attack. That was the perfect opportunity he had to finally kill Kota, but somehow Kota still managed to survive. Unknown to the group, Willard had utilized the earth elemental energy and completely made his body as valiant as a rock. Although the arrow was powerfully shot and connected with him, it wasn’t strong enough to completely penetrate through his body when he enforced it with natural energy. That was Willard’s final trump card, he knew he was at the end of the ropes here. He did not have much natural and elemental energy left, he only had enough elemental energy to last less than a minute.

The other two that were heading straight for the bushes both turned to see what the sudden noise was. To their complete surprise, Willard was standing, while Kota was bleeding. They couldn’t understand what had happened as they were all but certain that Willard was dead. They had witnessed the arrow plunge it’s metallic head into Willard’s chest, and yet that same Willard was still standing right in front of them.

The man with the bow, took out an arrow from his sack. His aim was directed at Willard. He arced the bow to its fullest, forming a perfect crescent shape. Willard seeing this knew exactly what was about to happen. After all, he had taken one of such shot and had barely managed to survive it. Seeing how fast his earth elemental energy was dwindling, Willard knew he couldn’t withstand another arrow attack and by all means he had to evade this arrow.

“What do you think you are doing?” A voice interrupted the scene that was unfolding. Looking to the direction of the voice, Willard and the assassins saw a tall, muscular, warrior come out of a stopped carriage. The warrior had an insignia of a white lotus flower embroidered on his outfit, which signified he was from the Gerret family. It was abundantly clear who was in that carriage now. It was Sebastian Gerret. This was the opportunity Willard had been hoping for. He had managed to hold out long enough for the assassins to shift their target away from him, and he also had the opportunity to gain a lofty backer.

The man with the bow immediately pointed his arrow at the tall muscular warrior and immediately shot at him. Willard used the last ounce of strength he had to seize this opportunity and dashed towards the bushes behind him. The assassins couldn’t be bothered to chase after Willard because their main job was to kill the master of that carriage.

The sudden attack from the assassin caught the warrior by surprise. Although the warrior was able to preserve his life by avoiding a fatal attack, the arrow none the less still hit his left shoulder. At this point, it was abundantly clear to the people in the carriage that these people were aiming for them. Three other warriors came out of the carriage and took defensive stances. These warriors seemed quite experienced in this sort of matter. Almost as if they had revised such a scenario a hundred times.

While all of this had happened, Kota had used the opportunity to stop his bleeding. He immediately took to the front lines to join his companion in attacking the warriors from the carriage.

1. N/a

The whistling sound was familiar to the group, as they turned around in quick succession. They had heard this particular whistle on numerous occasions in the past, and so they reflexively turned to see what gesture would accompany it. At first, they were startled to see a young man running towards them, but it did not take them a long time to realize what was going on.

“Quickly stop that brat, before the carriage gets here,” the short black haired man said as he continued running.

“That must be the brat Kota said was tailing us,” One of the men in the group of three said as they started to move to block Willards path.

“How did he manage to escape with his life?” Another one asked in surprise.

Earlier while they were within Marquis city, the short black haired man, Kota, had noticed they were being followed. He wanted to find out who that person was and eliminate the person. To his surprise, the person was a youth and a skilled one at that, since he was capable of running away.

The other three quickly spread themselves out to enclose Willard as he got closer. Willard came to a halt and stared at the men before him. He was now perfectly encircled and had no clear path to take. Willard took a second to contemplate his next set of actions. It was clear at this point, that this group’s mission originally had nothing to do with him and that he was the one that presented himself to them. Kota had cut up to him at this point and was making gestures to the group, signaling them to attack Willard in unison.

Willard had finished assessing the group and had made his plans for survival. What would come of it, wasn’t something Willard had complete confidence in, but it was better than just waiting for his eventual demise. Willard was no fool, he knew from the earlier conversation that these people were targeting the carriage that was coming along these paths. Willards primary goal was to drag out this affair until the carriage got close enough to them. Although that sounded like a simple task, it was far from simple. During a battle, life and death can be determined in a matter of seconds. Willard believed that if he was able to hold out just long enough, it would force them to abandon him and proceed to their original target.

‘I guess I have no choice.’ Willard thought to himself, as he started gathering earth elemental energy. From Willards point of view, the most dangerous person in the group was Kota. At all cost, he was going to avoid a fatal attack from this person. As for the rest, he estimated that they were within the natural energy levels. Of course, these were just estimates, as it is impossible for one to know the level of another’s strength just by looking at them.

‘He who takes the first initiative claims victory.’ Willard thought to himself and immediately started running to attack the group of three in front of him. As Willard got closer, one of the men ran forward to intercept and kill him. The man had an already drawn blade the shape of a machete. The man swung his blade across Willards chest in an effort to slash him open. Willard seeing that decided to evade the attack instead of blocking it. He wanted to hide his trump card, the earth elemental energy and martial movement skill, for his eventual fight against Kota. Willard was already looking ahead to the confrontation with Kota, and for that, he could not be careless and reveal everything he had, if he wanted to survive.

To the attackers complete surprise, Willard had easily evaded his slash by side-stepping to the right. Willard used the little opening from that evasion to immediately close the distance between him and the man that was attacking. Before Willard could get into a position where he could directly attack back with his fist, the attacker continued the slashing movement to attack Willard’s head directly. Although there was a slight pause in the attacker’s movement, the whole thing looked like one fluid attack. With that, one could tell that the man attacking obviously had an above average level of training. His blade movements were clean and precise. If it had been almost anyone else in that particular situation, they would have most likely died by now.

While the battle had started, Willard never stopped monitoring his surroundings. He especially kept an eye out for Kota. If Kota were to join the fray, then things will most likely get out of hand for him. Right now, he was still lucky the group hadn’t considered him a real threat and thus hadn’t gone all out to kill him. Suddenly, an idea sprung into Willard’s head. Willard utilized the martial movement technique for the first time during this encounter and directly appeared right in front of his attacker. Everyone including Kota had looks of disbelief as they saw what just happened. It was as if Willard had suddenly vanished into the earth and immediately reappeared right in front of the man with the blade. Now that Willard had increased his earth elemental energy foundation to that of a level 2, his martial movement technique had become  faster and more precise. From this alone, one could tell that Willards movement technique was related to the mysteries of the earth.

The man with the blade suddenly caught himself from his earlier stupor and proceeded to attack Willard again. This time around, Willard was in close proximity to the man with the blade. Willard caught the man’s arms as he was trying to swing his blade at him. Willard proceeded to dismantle the blade from the man’s hands while holding the man hostage. Willard held the blade in his right hand while holding the man by the neck with his left arm.

“If you don’t want this man..” Willard was saying when he got a glimpse of one the remaining two about to release an arrow gunning for his head. Willard seeing that immediately moved his hostage to the direction of the arrow. Less than a second later, an arrow pierced through the man’s head. Willard was shocked at the accuracy and ferociousness of these men. He then realized he had misjudged them yet again. These men were assassins on a mission. They did not have any level of kinship with each other. They were just partners temporarily working together. The men did not even bat an eyelid as their former companion collapsed on the floor dead with an arrow to the head.

Now that someone amongst them had died, the men had a change of behavior. The youth in front of them possessed a martial technique, which was very alluring to them. It also signified he was a dangerous person and that he might have powerful backers supporting him. They would have wanted to capture him and force him to give them the martial technique, but at this moment, they were in a bind for time. The carriage was drawing closer and in about two minutes the carriage will get in position to see them. Their original plan was to hide along the road and attack the carriage by surprise, but now everything seems to on wait until they kill the youth in front of them.

1. N/a

As the dust storm got closer, Baya could vaguely make out the looks of the people riding the mounts. They were about eight people riding towards the direction of Marquis city, and by the looks of the insignia on the outfit of the one leading the pack, he could tell they were warriors from the Marquis household. He felt relative assured as he realized they were not bandits, but he still decided to wait for them ride past himself. After some minutes, Baya got back onto the road and continued his journey.

Willard stood firmly still as he stared out through the window of the inn. He watched as the everyday life of the citizens of Marquis city played out in its normal accord. The streets were lively with merchants selling to their various customers, people filled the streets and all seemed quite normal. Suddenly, Willard noticed a group of people riding their mounts and heading towards the city palace. It was forbidden for regular citizens to ride their mounts within the borders of Marquis city, and as such, one could immediately tell these were warriors of the governing Marquis household. Willard stared fixatedly on the leader of the squad almost as if he was staring at a familiar figure. Willard retracted his gaze as he got a sense of deep danger looking at that man. At all cost, he was going to avoid any unnecessary contact with that particular man.

Now that Baya had gone to retrieve the living fire plant, Willard was left accomplishing minor task all by himself. Willard exited the inn wearing an inconspicuous outfit, he was trying to avoid any and all attention if possible. He was going to grab a meal from a nearby restaurant and use this opportunity to find out the current affairs of the city. Whilst eating, Willard heard all sorts of stories from minor affairs like the attires the different dukes wore to the varying functions to more political ones, like the advances of neighboring kingdoms. Although all these were informative, it wasn’t what he was currently interested in. He wanted to know about the affairs of the founding households, and more specifically the Helden household.

‘Can it be they are no longer interested in me?’ Willard hesitantly thought to himself. Given how people of power held their image in the highest regards, he couldn’t believe that was the end of that event. Willard continued paying attention to the conversations of the various people in the restaurant. One conversation in particular caught his attention. There was a group of four that had taken up the table directly behind him.

“I am not sure why Lord Asyut wants us to this, but we have to be very careful in accomplishing this task,” a man with short black hair whispered to the people on his table. He was one of the four men that had taken the table behind Willard. Hearing Asyut’s name, Willard’s full focus was on those men. From that bit of information, he could infer that those men belong to the Helden household, and are on a secret mission assigned to them personally by Asyut. This was exactly the kind of information he had sought by coming out today. And as luck would have it, the information had come to him. Willard decided at that point to follow this lead to its end. He was going to continue spying on these people until he found out what Asyut was planning.

Willard had his own ideas as to what their mission might be, but he needed to confirm what it was. Willard assumed the task these men were about to carry involved him in some way, so he wanted to be a step ahead of them. Willard left the restaurant and found a place to lurk in the shadows. He was waiting for the men to finish their meal, so he could tail them. Not too long after Willard left the restaurant, the four men also got out and started heading east towards the city gates. Willard followed them the way to the perimeters of the gate. While following, Willard was completely puzzled at their intentions. He had originally assumed Asyut would have tasked them with something pertaining to himself, but to his surprise, these men were heading out of the city. Willard contemplated stopping his watch over them, but in the end decided to follow it through. As the four men left the city, Willard waited some time before exiting behind them.

After walking some time, Willard could see the silhouette of three of the four men that he was tailing. He couldn’t quite figure out where the fourth one had gone, so he decided to go through the woods just to be safe. Willard continued following the three from the woods for some time when all of a sudden sounds of what seemed like a carriage could be heard coming from the distance. Willard focused his full attention on the carriage to try and figure out who that might be.

“Who are you?” A man said while gently walking towards Willard. Willard was immediately jolted back to reality. He was completely shocked and dumbfounded to hear and see someone approach him like that. He had been the one tailing people and now he was caught completely by surprise. As the man got closer, Willard could make out the facial structure, and immediately recognized this person. He was the dark haired man among the four that sat behind him at the restaurant. He was also the one who was missing from the group.

“How did you find out?” Willard asked while he started gathering earth energy. Willard knew for this man to have found out he was tailing them, he wasn’t an ordinary person.

“I won’t ask again. Who are you?” The man said while pulling his sword from its sheath.

Willard seeing this knew this was the real deal. This man before him was most likely at the elemental energy level. He had a vastly more terrifying presence than even the chief of the Yellow Hem village. Willard also knew that no matter what explanation he gave to this man, he would still come for his life. Willard immediately started laughing. His laughter was so loud that it even startled the dark short haired man. Willard pointed as he raised his hands pointing to the direction behind the man. Concurrently, the man turned to look at the direction Willard was pointing in. To his surprise, there was nothing there. The next thing the man heard was loud steps Willard had taken, as he immediately started to run towards the direction of the other three men and the carriage. Willard knew if he had to fight one on one against this man he would be at a serious disadvantage.

‘How did I become the rat in a trap?’ Willard questioned himself as he ran. If one was paying close attention to the floor, they would have noticed some little protrusion on the ground with every step Willard took. Although Willard wasn’t at the level where he could freely utilize earth elemental energy, he had a well above average control of the earth elemental energy. He was creating the protrusion to help boost his speed as every time it was created it would propel him forward. The Dark haired man was chasing right behind, he was completely stunned at how fast Willard was running, but none the less he was quickly catching up to Willard.

Willard seeing the man quickly catching up to him became even more frantic. Willard got onto the road and continued running. ‘How the hell do I get out of this?’ Willard lamented as he continued running towards the group of three and the incoming carriage. Suddenly, a loud whistling noise was heard. The group of three turned around to discover a young man and their companion running towards them.

1. N/a

Hearing Baya’s remarks, Willard had an indifferent look to him. He could pretty much guess what Baya’s intentions were, but that had no impact on him. He already had a mission in mind for Baya, before the start of their conversation. He was going to send Baya to a nearby town to gain a certain item for his use, but now he had extra motivation for Baya.

“You are to go to Red lagoon of the Red forest and obtain a certain item for me,” Willard said with a little hint of a smile. The red forest is located to the far south of Marquis city, while the red lagoon was located at the center of this forest. It would require at least half a day’s journey to get to the outer perimeters of the forest. Willard had thoroughly studied the map he had gotten from the Yellow Hem village, and had gotten more information regarding various materials he was interested in. From the information he had gotten from a certain merchant in Blue Rose village, Within the areas surrounding the Red Lagoon, there was a plant that mysteriously grew there. This plant called Living Fire, was rare in that it could miraculously grow within such an adverse condition such as the Red Lagoon.

“Retrieve a plant called Living Fire, and bring back its roots for me.” Willard said with a serious tone.

“When you bring back this plant you can have whatever you want as a reward.”

Baya had a look of frustration, he knew the character in front of him was overbearing, but he couldn’t believe how heartless this person was. The red lagoon was famous for exactly how inhabitable it was for any living creature. Experts in the elemental essence stage went out of their way to avoid that region because of how dangerous it was. And he, who was at the 8th stage of natural energy, and he is being sent over there. He couldn’t refuse or argue with Willard’s orders now that he was in servitude under an eternal oath. He could only resign himself to his faith.

Seeing the dejected look on Baya, Willard could pretty guess what was going through his mind. “Before you leave for the red Forest, I will pass my movement martial technique to you. I will also pass half of the soul training technique to you.” Baya immediately felt a bit better. Although he was going on a very dangerous journey, with the movement martial technique, his battle proficiency would increase to the level of an elemental essence practitioner. This drastically increased his chances of survival whilst giving him hope of improving his current natural energy level. Without any hesitation, he immediately bowed in acceptance of the mission.

Over the next two weeks, Willard spent the majority of his time teaching Baya the movement martial skill. He also relayed what he described as half of the soul training technique to Baya. While he was teaching the technique to Baya, he had made sure to stay unnoticed by the outside world. After all, he had just killed the personal guards of one of the founding families of the city. He was certain trouble would be brewing somewhere waiting for him.

After learning the movement martial skill, Baya was more confident in his chances for this mission. Baya used his free time to get the provisions he needed for his trip. Both Baya and Willard had spent a month at Marquis City and within this month, they had become wanted men of the Helden household.

The days went on peacefully, as usual, the dawn of a new day had just broken and the refreshing spectre of sunlight was illuminating the whole city. At the top most room of an inn in the eastern section of Marquis city, two individuals were sitting in a meditative position on their respective beds. The sounds of the birds combined with the warmth of the sun brought about a serene environment. If one had keen eyes, they could see the fluctuation of natural energy around those individuals as they cultivated.

Since getting to Marquis city, Willard had cultivated from the mid level 6 natural energy to the peak of level 6 natural energy, almost stepping to the beginning level 7 natural energy. This was well within his plans for advancement. The higher one went down the part of cultivation, the longer it took to advance. Willard still had some time before the start of the blood challenge, so he was naturally at peace with his rate of growth.

“I will be leaving for the Red forest today.” Baya said to break up the silence. From his observation, Baya knew Willard had stopped cultivating a while back. Willard hearing that nodded in acknowledgement. They both continued to sit in quietness almost as if they were waiting on something.

‘It is up to your efforts now. If you are unable to survive, you would have been of no use to me. Only by overcoming this will you be of any use.’ Willard thought to himself. In truth, Willard secretly hoped Baya would return safely for two reason. The first being that he would get the root of the living fire plant, and the second was that Baya would return with a tempered soul. This was what he wanted the for Baya, after all, the strength of one’s allies can be counted as one’s strength.

These two things were alluring, especially the living fire root. Ever since Willard regained his memories, the most shocking thing he had noticed about himself was his complete inability to sense the fire element. Although he could still sense the earth element, it was still at an inferior level to his original self. Willard had completely mastered the mysteries of the fire element as the chief god of destruction and was especially adept in wielding its power. The living fire plant was something that possessed an abundance of the fire element, which was why Willard wanted to acquire the roots. He believed that if he consumes that plant, he might be able to start sensing and absorbing the fire element.

Although the living fire plant was something he placed great importance on, he still wanted to use this opportunity to temper Baya’s soul. After all, if Baya fails he only has to go himself and acquire the plant. And if Baya succeeds, he would have killed two birds with one stone.

Later that morning Baya  left for the red forest. He stealthily left so as to not draw much attention to himself seeing as he had become a wanted man by association. It would be tragic if his mission was cut short by the people of the Helden household before leaving marquis city. Baya succeeded in leaving the city gates without being noticed, and at this point in time, he had started his first true life and death adventure.

This kind of adventure was different from the type of missions he got when he was still at the Yellow Hew village. Those missions could not be considered life threatening, they were all relatively safe and almost always in close proximity to the Yellow Hew village.

After walking for less than a mile along the path to the Red forest, the ground trembled slightly. Baya could feel this tremors continually grow in its intensity. From a distance, he could see a trail of what seemed like a dust storm drawing closer to him. Baya instinctively hid behind a tree to the left side of the pathway. He knew the storm and tremors signified people riding mounts were coming along that direction. Although the possibility of those riding the mounts to be bandits was low, Baya still took precaution to hide away. He would rather have himself waste some time hiding than actually encountering bandits.

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Staring at the four dead bodies before him, Willard had a look of disapproval. He originally intended to live a low profile life while he was staying at Marquis city, but now that seemed not to be the case. Willard immediately gathered the corpse of the dead guards and proceeded to drag them one by one to the nearby forest. After carrying each body one by one, he set all the bodies ablaze. He sneakily rushed to the inn he had booked a room while making sure he wasn’t followed. This entire endeavour had taken Willard over 3 hours to conclude. Willards biggest fear was that someone might have witnessed his actions and tailed him to his current residence.

Upon getting to his room, Willard saw Baya sitting crossed legged and meditating at the corner of the room. Ripples of natural energy were emanating from Baya’s direction, with Baya being the center of it all. “Interesting,” Willard said out loud, which caused Baya to wake up from his previous meditative state. “What do we do now?” Baya immediately asked Willard. Ever since he left the restaurant, Baya had been bothered with the preceding set of actions both him and Willard would have to take. By association, they had both offended some major powers at Marquis city. “Don’t think about it too much. We just have to lay low for a while.” Willard responded with a confident smile. “More importantly, do you know why you haven’t been able to improve much with your training?” Willard asked Baya somewhat condescendingly.

Baya was a little startled with Willard’s question, but went on to respond; “No, I have no idea. Do you know?” Baya had been stuck at the peak of the 8th level of natural energy for over 5 years, and has been searching for varieties of ways to improve and break through the levels of natural energy. That was the primary reason Baya chose to swear an oath of fealty to Willard. Willard staring at Baya’s longing faced, could not help but giggle a bit. “Let me explain a little bit.” Willard said while making his way to his bed. “For any being born to this world to grow, they need to be nourished by the natural energies of the world.” Willard said while gazing at the roof. He returned his gaze back to Baya and continued.

“The food, water, sun and everything we use to survive in this world can be described as a form of natural energy.”

“We also use this energy in pursuit of immortality, and here on this mortal world it is referred to as cultivation.”

“Your body draws the natural energy of the world, and your soul converts this energy to help nourish your own body.”

“The problem you face, as you might already be guessing, is that of your soul.”

“To put things bluntly, your soul is not strong enough. You convert such a miniscule amount each time you cultivate, and if things continue this way, it would be impossible for you to breakthrough the 10th level of natural energy.”

Baya hearing Willards explanation was shocked. This was the first time he had heard about the souls part in one’s cultivation. Although this information cannot be said to new to this mortal world, but it wasn’t wide spread either. Major tribes and kingdoms knew about the soul’s role in cultivation, and some had even developed ways to improve the strength of the soul. However, this news was a major setback for Baya who had been hoping to get a relatively easy fix for his cultivation woes.

“Is there a way for me to increase the strength of my soul?” Baya asked in a hopeful manner. Willard seeing the look on Baya’s face was unmoved, or rather wasn’t sympathetic to his plight.

“I know of several ways to improve one’s soul, but I can guarantee you it won’t be easy for you.” Willard responded with a mischievous smile on his face. Although Baya was subservient to Willard, Willard still wasn’t going to do things for Baya for free. From the moment of his birth to this particular time, Willard had never built what could be considered a good relationship with anyone.

“The first and simplest way to improve the strength of your soul is to find an element fruit and consume it.” Baya listened as Willard was speaking. Elemental fruits were one of the top treasures of the mortal world. They were too few in numbers and highly sort after by various powerful experts. Consuming an elemental fruit meant that one could pretty much skip the natural energy level and go straight to the elemental level. Such miraculous treasures were not easily seen, not to talk of even being sold. Willard mentioning this option was paramount to not saying anything because it was virtually impossible for Baya to go find this treasure on his own.

“The second method to improve the strength of your soul is to temper it through life and death situations.” This was the most realistic and dangerous way to improve the strength of one’s soul. One would have to go through life altering experiences where the chances of survival is not guaranteed. How many experts choose the path of a lone adventurer, and how many live to tell their tales. It was one of the most dangerous paths for warriors, as they would have to face the world on their own. If they were lucky, they would find good companions to travel with, if not they would have to face their challenges alone. While adventuring, people grow and gain enlightenment much faster. Their soul, body and mind grow at a much faster pace than cultivating at the comfort of their homes.

“The last method I can think of, is to practice a set of soul training techniques.” Hearing those words, Baya blossomed into a smile. The first two options were either impossible or just too dangerous. He was hoping for a less dangerous option, and as he heard ‘soul training techniques’ he became joyful. If he could acquire such techniques, then all his work would have been worth it.

“How can I acquire a soul training technique?” Baya immediately asked. He was anxious and hopeful that Willard would have such a technique. After all, who else except a former God would be qualified to have such an amazing technique at his or her disposal.

“Well that’s simple,” Willard responded with a smile on his face. “I am in possession of such a technique.” Baya couldn’t hold back his delight, he had finally found the answers to what he had been searching for. Then all of a sudden, Baya came back to his senses. He was after all dealing with Willard, the former god of destruction. How was it going to be a simple affair?

“What do you require of me, master?” Baya intelligently replied. He wanted to flatter Willard, but at the same time, he knew that wasn’t all it took to convince the person in front of him.

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