“Who is she?” actually when Shan Rao looked at the kids, she raised her brows due to the energy the kids emitted.
The boy emitted a small but warm qi which could be felt by anyone near him. His expression was calm but there was a warm gleam came from his eyes. That boy had black hair and a rather short hair than his peers and on his back Shan Rao could see a sword sheared.
She recognized the energy the boy emitted and she almost opened her mouth but held back. And then she turned her head a little to see the girl opposite of the boy. The girl had her gaze entirely on the boy, seemed like listening to his sentences. The girl had this other kind of energy which surprised even herself.
‘This is not a dream, right?’ because of that, the old lady Shan Rao tried to assure herself by moving around and she could feel the pain from her body and she trembled for sure.
Even she forgot that the pain came from her internal injuries and she tasted something inside her mouth.
“Don't move yet!” warned Wu Qing as she supported her and checked her condition again. But Shan Rao could not let her gaze out from the kids as they continued once again.
“There must be some methods unknown to us. I know that this issue about the containment measure is already debated for almost a decade without a good conclusion. Maybe there is a need for research around this area a bit but without sufficient resources, the research will progress so slow, understood?” the girl replied coldly but her expression however showed interest instead.
She raised her brows, as well as her lips and her face. The boy opposite of that girl became flustered for a moment as his eyes wandered around the room.
“Of course I have an idea about this. But do you want to know?” the girl boldly moved closer toward the boy and their face almost hit each other.
“Of course I want! So please step back and explain properly.” Said the boy hastily when he realized what the girl had done. He wanted to shout out but he knew that there was a guest with injury and he even inside that guest's room so he held back from doing that.
‘So it's true that boys will get flustered when I did all of that. This is thanks to Sister Yue.’ The girl thought proudly for her act.
“So..what are we going to do next? Should we introduced ourselves?” did not know whether the boy wanted to change the topic or to hid his embarrassment, he asked Wu Qing.
“It's a must for one to introduce themselves. Now, introduced yourself first because you at least knew about the opposite party already.” Wu Qing pushed the boy gently and the boy exchanged his gaze between Wu Qing and Shan Rao in front of him.
“I’m Ye Yingyuan. Can this elder tell me your name?” Ye Yingyuan opened his mouth but maybe he could not think much about what to say so he just using his usual greetings.
“Why are you so stiff and inflexible? But if that is truly your ways of greeting then it can't be helped. This lady here is Shan Rao.” After seeing the stiff expression of Ye Yingyuan, she introduced herself.
“That’s because I am taught to be respectful when talking with elderly. And please don't move too much because Elder Sister Wu will keep worrying about that.” Said Ye Yingyuan as he gestured with both his hands.
“Then can you tell me the girl beside you a moment ago?” this time Shan Rao asked with a slightly excited tone. Of course Ye Yingyuan noticed that and his brows raised a little.
Even he could not do anything than rolled his eyes to look back at Wu Qing and Li Ling.
‘Please do something!’ Ye Yingyuan's face turned into a pitiful one as if he suffered injustice and asked for immediate help. His eyes grew larger and his mouth slightly distorted, begging for explanation.
“I’m Li Ling. Pleased to meet the current leader of Northern Ice Palace here.” With a confident smile and momentum, she started to speak. She bent her body a little and then returned to normal.
“Hmm, you are really cute when you are this small. I can imagine that when you grow up, you will become a beauty that can captivate countless hearts.” Shan Rao praised Li Ling and then she exchanged her gaze from Ye Yingyuan to Li Ling and vice versa.
Hearing this made Li Ling shyly lowered her head and peeked at her side where unexpectedly Ye Yingyuan was confused by her act and look at her at the same time.
“Is there something wrong?” Ye Yingyuan asked but he also checked himself in case there was something foreign. But he could not find anything.
“I believe that when you woke up and saw these children, you have your eyes on them right?” of course the movement of Shan Rao's eyes could not escape from Wu Qing observation so she wanted to propose an idea.
“Truthfully, I have my eyes on them because the situation is urgent. As for right now, The Crown Prince is launching a campaign to establish his power.” Shan Tao sighed while rearranging her white hair.
“The Crown Prince, do you mean the current crown prince from Zhao Dynasty? But what does that mean?” Wu Qing asked with a frown for her own understanding was lacking at the moment.
“It was before I got myself at the spatial crack, at the time when I meet with them....” and Shan Rao told them the event where she had met with the crown prince.
-
“What are you doing here, Dong Zheng?” the man in front of Dong Zheng asked with a carefree attitude but Dong Zheng himself was not in a mood to reply.
Even his armor, which was made from jade stone, was not comparable to the armor the crown prince had worn. Other than that, there were also another aspect that made the crown prince surpassed him.
“I'm here to deliver the message from Emperor himself which was to seek cooperation with Northern Ice Palace. But then what are you doing here? Is there something important that make you come here?” Dong Zheng with his remained stoic face asked.
But he secretly held his anger because their position was different both from their standing and authority. And the reason for the anger was because The Crown Prince did not support him even though he was already declared to become son-in-law by The Emperor himself!
“So can you explain what is going on? Seems like the two of you not in the good mood for this.” Said Shan Rao. At that time, she could see the hostility between Dong Zheng and that prince.
“The arrangement for the messenger is not right. Obviously, there is a mistake in communication which caused this so I hope that you can consider it again to recheck it with me.” The prince offered his suggestion with a smile but Dong Zheng already gulped his saliva as his heart now beating faster.
“What is there to check? The treaty which will be used for this has the sign from imperial family so it cannot be taken or changed anymore. Or do you want to replace my position and assignment as well which The Emperor himself had given to me?” Dong Zheng retorted but then he heard his brother say something through energy transmission.
‘Brother, I feel that something is not right. I can feel the slight qi emitted from around us but the distance is quite far from here.’
At the same time, even the people on Shan Rao's side felt restless as well. It was even obvious on Tang Xiu's face which already lost all color.
Of course, Shan Rao enraged from the feeling of that slight energy fluctuation because that indicated the foundation of the formation was placed! She clenched her hands so hard that veins appeared on her arms.
‘All of you, listen carefully. Use the combination of your newly given resources to make an attempt to escape. This place is going to be full of danger.’ Shan Rao transmitted the message to all of her disciples there and even gave Tang Xiu an instant teleportation talisman which was rare.
“Master, I can't...” just as Tang Xiu wanted to give it back, she heard her master said something that made her heart as if stopped beating.
“Silly, you all are my precious disciple and for you all I can't let you die here.” Shan Rao would not give her disciple a chance to abort her plan and instantly activated the talisman using her qi.
‘And as for the others, you all know the methods of chain teleportation right?’
Shan Rao had already taught them in case something big like their current situation emerged, they would gather some necessary resources and with one Instant Teleportation Talisman, they would get out from the place.
‘This is the method when the existence of Northern Ice Palace is in danger. This method will ensure the survival of the disciple and the teaching will be inherited.’ Shan Rao smiled back at the crowds behind her but all the girls and young woman behind were already sniffing, some even crying at that.
“As expected from the current leader of Northern Ice Palace, you truly have a sharp sense of danger. Maybe it's your fortune that even I can't prevent the escape of your disciple but do you think that this is all over?” the prince still had his smile even though he said that.
“I tell you all then. Even if the disciple from Northern Ice Palace or your subordinates escaped, I'll make sure to hunt them all one by one to close their mouth and also to gather something.”
Although the situation was not good and the sudden appearance of the crown prince made both sides confused but they understood one thing.
‘He wanted to seal any information right here. And even if one of us escaped, with his connection and authority, he could search us one by one.’ That was the thought of Shan Rao anf Dong Zheng.
‘You all need to hide when you are successfully teleported, especially from the royal family of Zhao.’ Shan Rao knew the only weakness her method of escape was the destination of the teleport is totally random but still on the same continent.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
‘Spread this to all of the fellow disciples, quick!’ Tang Xiu gritted her teeth and told the rest of them. They communicated through numerous methods and the speed was quite good as every single person that affiliated with Northern Ice Palace received it.
“What? The emergency situation emerged and we cannot do anything to it!?”
“How can this happen? Isn't the contract is in effect even now?”
That kind of thought run through their minds. This also included Tang Xiu as she looked at the figure of her master and her fellow disciples.
“Eldest Sister, then what about that contract? Since that person opposite of us declared themselves to threaten us directly, isn't the punishment also included in it?” the person who asked this was the previously Junior Sister Ning.
Shan Rao only smiled at her, seemed to know the reason behind it. She already detected something terrifying within the crown prince but she could not do anything about it.
She was a Nirvana stage cultivator and yet she felt helpless about it.
“Activate!” Shan Rao herself activated the Instant Teleportation talisman and all of the disciple that currently present in the valley or in another place radiated a faint blue glowing light.
‘Isolation and Slaughter formation, this is going to be troublesome.’ Shan Rao worried about her disciples even now despite the formation started to work.
The formation which Shan Rao was currently in probably activated the isolation effect first. Isolation here meant the spatial isolation, totally no escape from it even if one had the cultivation of Nascent Soul.
“Let me be here with you, Master! Please, I beg you just for this time! Please don't make me leave your side!” this time even Tang Xiu begged herself while lowering her posture, half kneeling and looked back at Shan Rao.
“That's right, let this disciple join as well.” Sister Ning also closed her distance and hugged Shan Rao.
“Ning Zhu, I always tell you not to do this kind of act.” Even if Shan Rao said that, she knew exactly the feelings they wanted to express.
And as if that act of Ning Zhu was a trigger for others to got closer and together they formed a circle full of people that crowded towards the center.
But then one by one they disappeared as the effect from instant teleportation started to kick in. Tang Xiu looked Shan Rao unwillingly, with her eyes that grew larger.
Tang Xiu then followed what the others did, she put herself closer so she could hug her master.
“Zhao Youran!” Dong Zheng roared with all his might as the ground shook just after he said it out loud. Dong Zheng had never thought the possibility of the crown prince to break the contract between region so boldly like that.
‘The contract stated that no one, not even person from both region pass to another region without permission. And next is to not intentionally offend both sides in any kind of form. Why did he do it so boldly even as far as searching every single person from Northern Ice Palace?’
-
“Do you want to know so much that you dare to do this?”
Manstein was holding a beating heart on his hand which contained the golden core inside. Left without much choice, Nightstalker King slowly revealed something that made Manstein's interest piqued.
‘Fortunately, I already initiated Natural Flow Sync that can hide even my current soulforce from another person. I didn't expect that in this situation, this guy still dare to probe me. Is there some sort of relay which can send the vision and voice from this place to another?’ as Manstein thought about it, it was possible, no it would be the case.
‘Of course he can't probe the strength of Senior Wang, after all he is stronger than this guy.’
Manstein looked at the heart with only one of his eyes and the voice of Nightstalker King came from that organ! This was the characteristic of using the soul force to communicate.
“Please speak up or something might lose forever and irreversible change will occur.” Manstein then use the power of his few energy and also using the crude method of soul force control to inject his energy to the heart.
Soulforce control that Manstein used came from his own derivation from his soul theorem. Actually, he wanted to know better methods in this area but he had to enter the initial stage of cultivation, Qi Condensation period first, to open the file.
Manstein then sensed the rich energy from the heart, especially when he went deeper to the place where the golden core was placed. After that, Manstein invaded it with his own energy. Even he fused his soul force and his qi to aid the extraction process.
‘I recall from the records from my device that there is a gruesome method to extract energy essence from someone. Oh, not to mention it can also increase one spiritual root point.’
Spiritual Root actually could not easily detected its effectiveness to absorb qi. It was when Manstein read a record about it in his device that someone finally described with more detail, even turned the stage of talent into numerical digits.
That was why when Manstein finally realized his spiritual root point was 0.5, he almost went frenzy. But when he read more from his device, he also found the information about how to increase the number of point for his spiritual root.
‘The only problem is I need to learn properly a certain technique and it's time-consuming. Oh, the energy is truly beneficial to my energy source.’ Manstein revealed his delight as the new and huge amount of energy came to his body.
Meanwhile, Nightstalker King groaned and even screamed out in pain. His scream even reached and rang Manstein's ear but Manstein did not care at all. Instead, he felt that was normal for the person’s heart to be invaded and the core to be taken away.
There was still a connection with the consciousness of Nightstalker King inside the heart and the core so of course, the owner realized what exactly happened to his body part.
“Don't you know that while in a conscious state, the extraction of energy will greatly harm you?” Manstein sinisterly laughed while increasing his amount of Qi.
“What is this!? What kind of energy are you using?” seeing the energy sucked every single essence inside his heart, Nightstalker King asked in disbelief.
“Now, now. What are you shouting and yelling at me for? I told you to tell me about every single thing inside your head but you refused, well...” Manstein chuckled before sucking more and more energy essence from the heart as well as the golden core.
‘What kind of freak did I offend!?’ at this time, even Nightstalker King knew he messed up a lot! If only he knew what kind of person Manstein truly was.
‘Toward this kind of guy, no mercy is given.’ Manstein coldly and ruthlessly stirred his hands to feel the golden core directly with his hand.
And at the same time, Manstein revolved the new energy which he absorbed earlier to condense it in the form of a singular point! And since the energy he received was much more than he expected, Manstein started to lead the excess to properly stabilize his condition first.
‘He...is just entering the initial stage of cultivation!?’ this made Nightstalker King mad but he could not even express it. Just imagine that someone who did not have an ounce of his strength played with him to the point of insanity.
But then he thought of something good especially when he saw Manstein had to focus himself during the process of absorption and integration.
‘Well, to tell you the truth right now this continent is on its way to witness another event. Especially since the royal family of Zhao started their move first, I'm sure they wanted to truly unite this continent.’ Nightstalker King intended to make Manstein unfocus so that he would receive a backlash in his advancement.
‘Come on, it should happen soon.’
And Manstein coughed a few times and some of the coughed let out blood.
‘How’s that? Is it good?’ Night stalker King asked with sarcasm. He laughed in his heart for the backlash but soon he found out the situation rather strange. The man then laughing despite receiving such a backlash and this made him doubt himself.
“It’s good, that was the best feeling I got since I hear what I wanted from you. You wanted to turn me into a cripple by distracting my mind, is that wrong?”
But Manstein just raised his hand and wiped the blood from his mouth. Although he said that Manstein actually achieve a success in his breakthrough but that was with a small price.
“For me, entering the initial stage will force my body to receive some backlash so what you had witnessed is actually me entering the Qi Condensation stage.”
Manstein could see a faint glow around his body. Of course it was so faint no one would notice even if that person standing next to Manstein.
“For now, let us discuss in detail what actually happened in the central region. Oh, I see it now..” Manstein suddenly looked back at the heart in his hand as he forcefully use his soulforce to enter the consciousness of Nightstalker King.
‘How can I think like that when I first encounter this guy? I thought that only at Nascent Soul one will start to learn about soulforce but since I already knew about it and train with it, does that mean soulforce is not restricted to cultivation level? So what use is Nascent Soul stage then?’
Of course what Manstein did not know, soulforce indeed could only be used by Nascent Soul cultivator however that was because they were restricted by the rules of the world. Manstein was an otherworlder so there was some advantages to him despite being restricted strictly by the world itself.
‘You want to enter my consciousness and extract my memories? Dream on!’
“Old monster, you cannot beat me like this. Not with this kind of control.” Manstein then used his newly cultivation to enter the consciousness of another. Manstein knew the soul force from the opposite party was beyond the words stronger.
But Manstein found it to be a fortune because mostly the higher someone's cultivation, they would have some mastery in soulforce and Nightstalker King was such a figure with good control of soulforce.
Sadly, what Nightstalker King did not know was that Manstein trained his soul force first for the first two months even during his slumber. Soulforce itself was the strength of the soul but not the force that would affect the lifespan.
Soon, Manstein already saw many things from the memories of Nightstalker King and of course the victim uttered a helpless cry.
‘No! How can this be? How can some nobody has this kind of control over soulforce!?’ but soon Nightstalker King realized that his connection to his heart gone
“I didn't expect the breakthrough either. But with this kind of power I can stand in the battle of soulforce for some time. And then...I am finally capable enough to sever the soul force of someone else but that is really tiring.”
Now that Manstein finally knew what was going on around the continent just by seeing the memories alone, he could find the first key to the true perpetrator.
“Hmm, did you find something?” when Wang Yu saw all of the events, he sighed and his eyes narrowed to the person that he met few months ago.
‘Once I saw his expression when he did all of that, only one word came to my mind. It's a demon.’ Wang Yu thought deeply. Fortunately that Manstein still restrained himself and nothing major happened.
‘I remember Lady Alice warned me to keep him in check so they he will not change into ‘that’. She told me that when they were young, this man who was just a boy killed dozens of men already.’ When Wang Yu finally recalled that again, he glanced at the eyes of Manstein.
Surprisingly, he found a trace of red on the pupils when Manstein absorbed and integrated the energy from the golden core with his own body but when he had done the deeds, his eyes returned to the usual black color.
“Senior Wang, can you tell me what do you know about Zhao royal family?” suddenly Manstein asked.
“They are the family of emperors, their fame as well as the might followed by their strength made their position strong and firm but it was a long time ago. But from Hou Fei, I heard that they declining at a steady but surely pace. What's the matter?” despite the dispersity of their age, Wang Yu could not change his way of calling Manstein too much and he told what he knew and heard from Hou Fei.
“Nightstalker King unexpectedly has a connection to the hand behind the curtain and Zhao royal family is the important figure this time.” Manstein opened his mouth while opening a jar full of yellow honey.
He gulped down half of the content while some of the honey slipped out and stained the area around his mouth. The Yellow Honey from The Yellow Bee contained rich energy and almost comparable to a supreme elixir.
This honey was the gift from Theresa and Manstein consumed it while sitting atop someone's residence. He looked at the dark, greyish clouds which was hung on the top of his eyes and as far as his eyes could see.
The clouds shrouded the blue sky, just like the mist inside Manstein's heart. He pondered that the sky in that winter was the same as his heart currently, hiding the true color of nature.
Despite the sweet taste the honey gave to his taste bud, Manstein felt the honey had no taste at all. There was something that truly worried him and that was to let his inner self act unrestricted.
‘When the chaos landed upon the land, the hero and the demon will be born.’ Manstein could not believe that he remembered another tale from his world and he laughed softly due to this.
-Regarding this matter, I ask you to help me as well as the people of this, Xuan City. Maybe, just maybe this kind of people are rare already...” Manstein closed the jar and stored it again. Then he stood up and turned his whole body to Wang Yu.
“That’s all from me for now. If you are looking for me then I will go to the mayor's residence first and go to Han Lang's place.” And when he finished saying that, Manstein jumped down and there was a trace of qi was being used when he did that.
‘This man unexpectedly broke through but that is due to the absorption of the energy inside that golden core.’
He knew that for someone like Manstein, breaking the limit was so hard even that recent break through was like a miracle. But other than that, Wang Yu started to worry about the possibility of that person reaching his hands on some things.