A little over a mile away, a handsome teen with dark brown hair could be seen calmly walking through the forest with an adorable jet-black little mouse sitting leisurely on his shoulder when suddenly, the image of an illusory old man materialised behind the teen.

The boy was Linley Baruch. One of the Ernst Institute’s two supreme genius mages and the heir to the Baruch Clan. The little rat-type magical beast on his shoulder was his beast partner, a ‘mutated Shadowmouse’, Bebe and the illusory old man that just appeared behind him was his master, Doehring Cowart, a former saint-level earth mage that sealed himself in the ring on Linley’s right index finger.

“Grandpa Doehring, what’s wrong?” Linley asked cautiously.

They had been in the Mountain Range of magical beasts for almost two months now, and in that time, his master didn’t actually intervene much.

Doehring Cowart knew that this disciple of his was very talented, but having grown up as the young master of a clan which ruled over a small village, Linley had never suffered any hardships till now.

Although due to how his father raised him, he was very mature for his age, Linley still had a lot of growing to do, and as far as Cowart was concerned, this trip was necessary to temper Linley’s spirit to better prepare him for inevitable future hardships, but anyone who could use their spirit to lock on to the presence of another was someone dangerous. Likely too dangerous for the current Linley.

“I just sensed an odd spiritual essence lock on to us,” The white-haired old man said with a deepening frown as he looked in the direction of Ace and his group. “Linley, you need to be extremely careful this time. Whoever’s approaching is a warrior also in the fourth rank with spiritual essence several times even yours.”

A frown appeared on the brown-haired teen’s face as he pulled out an incredibly sharp inky black dagger he’d taken from the corpse of an assassin who had previously targeted him and insta-cast the first rank wind spell – [Wind Scout], just in time to see his supposed attacker closing in on him.

“Yoo, Linley. It’s been a while,” Ace said as he suddenly appeared just over a dozen meters away.

“Do I know you?” Linley asked back as he looked at the somewhat familiar teen before him whilst trying to suppress the shock in his heart.

The boy looked to be significantly younger than him, but according to his master’s warning, was a warrior no weaker than him and even stronger spiritually. The talent needed to accomplish feats such as that was nothing short of astounding.

As for not recognising him, it had been over seven years since Linley had last seen Ace and almost six since he heard about the incident between him and his brother. To him, the youth who’d rejected his family’s goodwill had been no more than an afterthought, so not being able to recognise him after all this time made sense.

“Ooh, you really don’t recognise me?” Ace asked with an evil smirk. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though. Why would the young master of the famous Lizardblood warriors recognise a simple child of humble beginnings.”

As Ace’s voice waned, Linley’s eyes narrowed, and his grip tightened around his dagger. He may not recognise the youth, but he could hear the animosity in his voice, and for the bloodline he was so proud to be a part of, despite not having the required purity to truly awaken it, to be referred to as ‘Lizardblood’…

Linley’s anger could be imagined, but thankfully after his time in the wild, he had matured significantly. Nevertheless, keeping his emotions in check was all but a necessity if one wanted to survive in an environment like this.

“I believe his name was Ace,” Cowart mentally transmitted to his disciple. “If I’m not mistaken, he was the child your family originally wanted to make your personal guard.”

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Although he was back in the coiling dragon ring, not wanting to take any chances after sensing Ace’s odd usage of spiritual essence, the former saint could still see what was happening in the real world.

And like his disciple, he too was in shock when he saw the youngster. Of all the children Doehring had seen since taking Linley as his disciple, despite only seeing him once, it was this youth who left the most profound impression on him.

Not only was his talent amongst the best he’d ever seen or heard of, the manner in which he conducted himself when politely but firmly rejecting the Baruch family’s offer was nothing like one would expect from a child.

Hearing his master’s words, Linley’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as the image of the boy who rejected his father’s offer all those years ago overlapped with the teen before him today.

“You’re the one who broke my brother’s arm and embarrassed my family five years ago?” Linley asked coolly.

“You seem angry,” Ace smirked as he spun the glaive he took from the assassins the Baruchs had hired to kill his family around his hand with deft control. “But it’s us who should be angry after what your pathetic excuse for a family did.”

Ace thought back to the assassination attempt six years ago. If any of them were even a little bit weaker, or if his mother didn’t awaken her [Conqueror’s haki], there was a very good chance that he could have lost everyone he cared about in this new life.

Each time the glaive completed a full spin, a bit more of the anger he’d been suppressing all this time seeped out, transforming into a killing intent so potent it was almost tangible.

Amira, who had just arrived after carrying Julius, looked at Ace from behind, taken aback by what she was witnessing.

She’d felt Ace’s killing intent several times over the last month. Whenever an assassin was to target her, no matter if they were close or not, Ace’s killing intent would flare. Still, though she never came out and said it, despite his killing intent making the temperature in the surrounding area plummet, it made her feel oddly warm inside, but this…

Ace’s current killing intent made him seem less human and more like a demon that had slaughtered its way out of the depths of hell.

“Mira, Fatty, you guys should leave,” Ace said frigidly, his cold, emotionless eyes remaining trained on Linley. “I’m going to take this little wannabe lizard’s head and send it back to his family. I don’t think Fatty should be here to watch this.”

Julius was shocked by the killing intent Ace exuded. Like Amira, he too had felt Ace’s killing intent several times over the last month, but where it was usually focused on the assassins who attacked them, this time, not only was it infinitely stronger, but it was also unrestrained.

“Fatty,” Amira called out loud as she continued to stare at Ace. “You get back; I’m going to stay here.”

“O…

Okay,” Julius said as he hurriedly did as was told.

Linley was far from an idiot. He didn’t know of any plot to have Ace and his family killed, so typically, he would’ve picked up on the oddity of Ace’s words, but his clan was a sensitive subject for him.

As the firstborn, both his mother and father had put the restoration of their clan in his hands, but the look of dejection on his parent’s faces when he failed to reveal the bloodline purity needed to become a Dragonblood warrior stayed with him till this day.

It was a big part of the reason he worked so hard despite Wharton, his little brother, being more than capable of restoring his family’s former glory.

So for Ace, someone who’d already humiliated his family on two separate occasions to do so again in such a blatant manner, even after the arrival of Ace’s party, it was taking all of his willpower not to charge over.

“Bebe,” Linley said in a voice no less frosty than Ace’s. “Don’t interfere. He’s mine!”

Sensing Linley’s rage via their connection, Bebe wanted nothing more than to tear the youth that angered his only family limb from limb, but ultimately, he trusted Linley and hopped off his shoulder so Linley could handle it himself.

Cowart silently watched everything unfold with a pensive expression on his face. Unlike Linley, he knew there was undoubtedly more to the story. In fact, he had a pretty good idea as to what happened. Still, he said nothing in the end.

“[Super Sonic],” Linley voiced aloud as he turned into a blur speeding straight towards his opponent.

As a warrior of the fourth rank and a mage of the fifth, Linley’s speed was very impressive. But, unfortunately, his opponent was Ace.

A derisive smirk hung on Ace’s lips as his glaive moved like a snake to intercept him before he could even use his dagger to attack.

Linley hurriedly brought his dagger to attempt to parry the blow as he forcibly came to a stop, but Ace’s strike was a lot stronger than he anticipated.

Though he was successful in parrying the strike, he was still sent stumbling back over ten steps before he was able to stabilise his footing.

As he looked up, he saw Ace looking straight at him in pure disdain. “Is that it?”