A carriage laden to capacity rumbled on through the dark night, the creaks and squeaks of the protesting carriage bringing the now weary-looking merchants continued towards the Waltham province. Hartley still held his position a hundred meters behind. Lou Tai and Qin Li flanked the carriage on both sides

When they were 2 miles from the Waltham province, there came the loud rumblings of horse hooves coming in their direction, Hartley could now sense several xiantians approaching at a fast pace through the forest. He flashed forward and rejoined with the group... Approaching on the main road was a squad of fully armored soldiers and alighting from the forest were some elders and core disciples of the Lou clan that Hartley didn't recognize.

"What happened, are you guys ok?" a tall man in a suit of shiny armor that glistened under the faint moonlight inquired as he rushed ahead of the squad to inspect the occupants of the carriage. The merchants with blood shot eyes had a look of relief as they all competed to recount their experiences at the bandit camp and pointed out Hartley as the young lord who had saved their lives.

The man came over to Hartley and bowed respectfully, "I am Chen Xia, the captain of the guard unit assigned to the Baron's estate" Hartley returned the greeting after the man introduced himself, at this point the elder from the Lou clan hurried over saying "Lou Rylai made a serious report about the suspected use of dark arts in the cosmos region." Lou Tai then confirmed "I think so too, the man had an evil aura, the likes of which could give one nightmares."

"Thank you for saving our merchants" said the Chen Xia, then added "time is of the essence we need to head to the Cosmos region to investigate and gather the evidence. The Baron will contact you later" The Lou clan elder shook his head in silent agreement.

The patter of horse's hoofs sounded again and faded into the dark night as Chen Xia left with a majority of his soldiers accompanied by the Lou clan members, he assigned six soldiers to escort the wagon and the team back to the Lou clan for debriefing.

At the building at the foot of the Stella mountain, a roomful of people were gathered on the third floor, Lou Ang was seated and still mumbling gibberish, several people had tried to communicate with him since he returned but up to this point he has not spoken one cohesive sentence..

Looks of pity and sympathy could be seen in the eyes of those who had interacted with him, those who had experience could tell that his soul was injured. It would take an expert at the Saint realm with treasured medicines that didn't often appear on the mortal plane to heal him.

Hartley had no such pity for him, it was a lucky break for Hartley and the others that the cloaked man was attracted to his evil soul, it gave them forewarning of what the man was capable of.

Lou Rylai sat quietly in a chair as her eyes constantly flashed towards Hartley, she hadn't known him before this mission but the youth's bravery in front of the devil had impressed her to no end.

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Present in the room were the representatives of the Baron's estate, they had spread parchments, ink and a quill on a table and prepared to take notes. Lou Chang, Lou Chingham and other elders in black cloaked robes were presiding over the debrief, they took their positions in the center of the room looking over the crowd.

Lou Chang stood up and asked Lou Tai to recount the events of the mission, the representatives of the Baron's estate began to take notes as Lou Tai gave his rendition of what happened down to the finest details, he then pointed out Hartley as the one who had defeated the black cloaked man and he handed over the man's space ring to Lou Chang. Hartley had stripped the space ring of most of its wealth, then gave it to Lou Tai on the journey back. The ring was ripe with riches but Hartley hadn't taken it all, he left some along with all other items that would serve as evidence.

The people in the room looked at the handsome blue eyed youth with respect and disbelief, not many at his level had exchanged blows against the practitioners of the dark arts and lived to tell the tale. Hartley credited his luck in the fight against the dark cloaked man as he played down the fight. Qin Li had a strange expression, he had seen the battle and luck wasn't what he saw, he was puzzled as to why Hartley did not claim the bulk of the credit for the mission, there were a lot of clan points on offer.

The grueling meeting was adjourned after what seems like hours and everyone went their own way, Hartley wasn't too keen on spending the night in the Lou clan so he flashed away towards Zhi Ruo's house.

There were complex expressions on the elders faces after everyone left, "How did he do it?" asked one dark cloaked elder, the other mused for short while and said "Now I see why the Patriarch has so much belief in him."

There was a single light dancing at the tip of a candle in the bedroom, Zhi Ruo had long been prepared for bed until she heard foot steps outside, this was not a common occurrence in this secluded area, she grabbed a sheathed hunting knife from a table and crept silently to the front door,

"its me Ruo" came a voice from the other side, she immediately recognized the voice and opened the door. There standing in grey robes was the handsome blue eyed youth she had fallen head over heels in love with.

He had left for more than a week now and she couldn't help but wonder... with eyes radiating love, she threw herself into his arms and hugged him close.

"You're back, how was your mission?" before Hartley could answer she rested her head on his chest and said "I missed you" Hartley stroked her hair as if petting a canine saying "of course I'm back, you should have more faith in me,"

she pouted a bit and revealed her beautiful smile.. "it's not like that"

Hartley looked into the eyes of his first love, even though he was more mature than anyone his own age, the fact was, he was still a teenager and not even he was immune to the fear, anxiousness and trepidation for a boy transitioning into the realm of being a man, it took a different type of strength. He had thought that strength was the only thing that mattered for most of his life and now looking at Ruo and the feelings she riled up in his heart, he discovered there was more..

Hartley now felt he had the knowledge he had yearned for, it was now time to forsake the clan that had forsaken him. Even though he had shamelessly returned to the clan, it was only a means to an end. No longer was he going to accept being boxed in. He was the weak bird pushed out of the nest and forced to fly by instinct and now he was about to soar through the skies..