Abdin slowly took in a deep breath. He had thought of following the team to see where Laluri would take them. That might help him on deciding how to better deal with the slave girl in the next loop. But that was proving to be difficult.

With the help of her peak core formation stage cultivation, she had halted all the horses mid-gallop. He couldn't tell if that had to do with her 'marking skills' or just pure cultivation pressure.

The only way to follow the team now was by doing away with her. But that would render his tagging along with them useless, as they didn't know where she was taking them to.

"I will advise you," he heard her voice in his ears. "Whoever you are, go back the way you came. If not..." She smiled, leaving the words hanging threateningly.

Abdin looked at the carriage. The slave was at the moment peering at him from a window on the side. He couldn't tell if she was still shackled or had already unbound herself, but she looked confident.

He sneered and looked away. After you killed a person twice, you lost the ability to take them seriously.

"You are ranting all this, just because he wants to come with us?" Juwaira was beside herself with anger and didn't even try to change her voice to a man's as usual. "Is there anything wrong in him following us to Shurein? My country is welcoming to all. Unless there is something you are hiding."

Laluri merely smiled at that without replying. Her eyes were glued to Abdin as she waited for his reply.

Abdin checked his wristwatch. The time to summon the castle had already passed. Killing Laluri in his current state without the castle's help wouldn't be that easy. Besides, killing her at the moment would also be meaningless.

He raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. "Alright. I am not here to make trouble. Be on your way, I shall scout for another team."

He turned and walked away to the back of the mountain. None of them moved until he was out of sight. Juwaira gritted her teeth as she glared at the carriage.

But she knew there was nothing she could do at the moment. She couldn't have been here in the first place if there was an escape route.

Laluri could kill any of them through the ant tattoo with a mere clap of her hands. They couldn't overcome her without losing lives - something the princess wasn't ready to accept yet.

Despite knowing that that would exactly be the case if things went on like this. Still, she hoped that given time, an opportunity she hadn't expected would come her way.

Nevertheless, she didn't for a second stop making surreptitious plans. If the tables would turn in her favor at the moment, she was confident in getting rid of the slave girl. Even at the risk of losing some men, that should be the last resort.

Abdin waited until they were far from the mountain before setting out. Though he couldn't summon his desired castle at the moment, there were other things he could do.

He would first visit the small towns of Nanila and Wuran to see the victims that died during the previous loop.

Abdin believed they wouldn't be more than fifty or a hundred. A small amount, and although that didn't make him feel any better, it was a much better outcome than what might have happened had he not recognized the problem earlier.

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It took him ten days of a lonely trek through the jungle to reach Nanila. They had used pol to hasten their journey the first time they went there, but Abdin had no reason to hurry now so he took his time. Sometimes he would just sit to watch animals hunting. And for the most part, he dug to see if he could uncover the hidden invaders.

He enjoyed the part of watching the animals hunt but his digging turned out in vain.

He decided that either the invaders weren't stationed in tunnels underground, which was unlikely, or they were employing a shielding technique more powerful than his senses.

He sighed and pushed away the thoughts from his mind.

He could see from afar the changes at the gates of the small town.

Gone were the guards and the merchants going to and fro. The gate was wide open and he could see people on the street from where he stood.

He walked toward the gate. Just a few steps away, he clashed with a young man bearing a woman on his back.

The young man had been running with his sight set on the horizon. He didn't notice Abdin until he bumped into him.

He felt as if he had hit a wall, making him stagger and almost fell. Abdin held him up. The woman on his back didn't look good and would probably sustain fractures from the impact.

The young man nodded his thanks, unable to speak. He looked shaken, but that didn't bother Abdin who was focused on the woman on his back. She was unconscious.

Unbidden, Abdin's heartbeat raced.

"What is wrong with her?"

The young man slowly looked up at him before he nodded.

"For how long?" Abdin asked again.

"This morning." The young man had a look of disbelief. "She breathes and everyone says her pulse is steady, but she refused to wake up. I don't want her to suffer the fate of the others."

"...what happened to the others?" Abdin asked.

"They are all dead," he said quietly as he looked down at his feet.

Abdin hesitated, clenching his jaw. "How many?"

The young man shook his head with a look of terror. "A thousand, two thousand, half the town... I don't know.

"Everyone's in the graveyard. Do you know somewhere I can get a healer please, she is my mother?"

Abdin took a deep breath. No cure in the world could save this woman or any of the other victims in the town.

It was their souls slowly burning away and their hearts would stop beating as soon as it finished. Abdin knew that because he caused it.

He shook his head at the young man. The young man gave him an angry, 'why-waste-my-time-for-nothing-then' look, before he quickly moved on.

Abdin wanted to tell him the truth but couldn't.

He walked slowly toward the town. Death wails filled the air as bodies were brought out from every corner. A town crier rode around telling the mourners to stop touching the dead. He claimed it was a plaque that was spread through touch. But his warning fell on deaf ears.

Abdin reached the cemetery. From a distance, he could count more than a hundred fresh graves with his spiritual sense.

It was just getting started, and most wouldn't die today... the number would soon double. But how did he happen to kill as many people as this?

It was only one sword formation he wielded. How was it possible then, that he killed all these people? True, he used the formation to kill almost six core formation experts, but that wasn't enough to make this happen.

He suddenly recalled how the castle expanded before the usual time. This was a bad omen.

Every change meant that something beyond Abdin's knowledge and control would happen. Was it the land of Biyakis which wasn't good or was it the castle wanting to cause him trouble again?

'Damn it... It's getting greedy again.'

Abdin thought silently before shaking his head. Counting the victims of Nanila and those of Wuran and the three other villages, the amount would be staggering. They would all have been dead if he hadn't thought to stop using pol sooner.

He returned to the town, feeling dejected. It had been a long time since he found himself in this mood.

People passed by him as he walked. They wouldn't have looked at him the same way if they knew he was the cause of their woes.

This was why, in the past, he felt like giving up on his quest for immortality and just dying.

If not for the death of his sister, and the things that happened afterward, Abdin would have long since taken heart and accepted his fate and died.

But he just couldn't have the courage to accept death after all that happened. Doing that would make all the victims here and the others that died at his hands before, die in vain.

He gritted his teeth. He wasn't about to die and be forgotten. How long would it be before even his legend would be forgotten?

Right or wrong, he knew that he never killed for pleasure. And that was enough for him.