Abdin removed the certificate of ownership and flung it toward the man. Instead of catching it with his hands, Muwadd summoned an orb that held it for him. He pushed his spiritual sense and checked it before bringing it closer to his face. He opened it and read.
He took a whole minute reading before he closed it and sighed. "The village head said you would present us with a false certificate. He swore this isn't his signature."
Abdin shrugged. "What do we do now?"
The old man paused thoughtfully before he returned the certificate to Abdin.
"You have five core experts. And then there's you. We don't know the level of your cultivation. Some said you are at the foundation establishment stage, that you just happen to possess a treasure that allows you to wield power beyond your cultivation level. But others believe you're hiding your real cultivation."
The old man took a breath. "No matter, we have the numbers and we have Leader San waiting at the sect for our reply. You do not have a chance."
Abdin moved his gaze toward one particular man with a silver mask. Muwadd laughed.
"Ah, that isn't him," he said. Then his countenance changed. He turned to glance at the masked man and then back at Abdin. "Ha-ha... You don't know him either."
"You are not together?" Abdin asked.
The old man shook his head. "He's not yours?"
Abdin could only frown. They stared at each other before the old man exhaled.
"That is what I wanted to say, that people are beginning to get attracted to this castle. We are going to weaken each other if we fight, and we could both lose it."
"As I said, it isn't me that brought an army to your forte. Why not turn back to where you come from and we can discuss things from there?"
"You know quite well we can't forego an ancient treasure," Muwadd said. "Our sources revealed there is a lot of spirit ki inside the castle which could help boost our cultivation. Do you think we would just leave empty-handed?"
So they knew about the spirit ki and that was why they didn't hold anything back while planning their attack. At a certain level, a powerful spiritual sense could go through the castle's protective warding even from afar and spy on the castle.
Abdin swept his spiritual sense over Muwadd to get a feeling of his spiritual sense. Perhaps it was the elderly man who spied on the castle.
"What are you on about?" Abdin asked.
"Give us fifty percent of the castle," the old man said. "Then we will help you protect it. We both know what would happen if Biyakis gets to know about everything happening here. But if people know we are stationed here, they would have to think twice."
Abdin smiled. He wouldn't get a day added to his cultivation if he gave them fifty percent and opened the gates for them. He only gained a cultivation base when he brought in men as his servants. Gifting out any portion of the castle would decrease his cultivation.
"You are not getting even half a percent."
The old man furrowed his brows. "Don't be an ingrate. We both know you can't defend the castle alone. Perhaps, there is some danger in facing you at this moment, but what do you think when Leader San himself comes?"
"There is still a way for you to enter this castle. By being my servants." Abdin wouldn't turn down free cultivation whenever he saw it. If they accepted his terms and entered the castle, he would get a lot out of it.
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The old man clenched his teeth, and his mouth began to fume. "We, become your servants?"
Abdin nodded. Princess juwaira was nobler and of a higher status than the man before him, he couldn't see why the man wouldn't serve him. "You would get free ki in return. Let's imagine your cultivation couldn't move forward at the moment, you have hit a bottleneck you can't break through, and I am certain you would be hopeless. Won't you? But if you agree to work for me, I will give you the chance to break through and keep on living. Leader San himself can come out from seclusion and get the spirit ki here. Who knows? It can be all he needs to break through. But with the one condition, he would be my servant. Think about it, Muwadd, which is more valuable, your life or your reputation?"
"You want us to sacrifice the sect and our legacy all to languish at your feet?" The old man growled in anger.
"No pressure," Abdin said. "It is just some advice from a fellow cultivator. You can turn and go if it doesn't suit you."
"You prefer both of us to lose than to apportion us just fifty percent?" The old man roared.
Abdin had nothing more to tell him so he kept quiet. The old man kept on growling and eventually descended from the wall. He talked with the other core formation experts before he approached the silver-masked man.
He spent about ten minutes there speaking and making different gestures with his hands to carry the conversation all by himself before Silver Mask finally nodded. Since the beginning, this was the only time Abdin saw him speak. Or rather gesticulated, since his mouth wasn't visible to prove he'd spoken.
Muwadd stood aside respectfully as the man let his horse approach the gates one step at a time.
Abdin's face clouded. A part of his chest would always heat up whenever he was in real danger.
Silver Mask stood at a distance from the gates and then slowly raised his hand and pointed a finger at it. The air in front of him was torn apart and a black void appeared. A moving object appeared from the void and approached the gates.
It moved slowly and was almost too lazy to be anything special. But it gave Abdin the impression of a predator bird stalking its prey.
Abdin clenched his fist and summoned a lightning orb. This time, it appeared reddish. He chanted another incantation and the lightning transformed into the shape of a castle. In the next moment, the miniature lightning castle vanished from Abdin's side and appeared before the moving object.
The black birdlike object clashed with the holographic castle, but nothing happened. The moving object (bird) passed through the lightning castle as if it wasn't there, and hit the gate in the next second.
Abdin didn't hear any explosion but just saw the gate vanish. There wasn't even any dust. It was as though there weren't any gates, to begin with.
[You have lost five years. Your cultivation is down to 110 years and 9 months. You have 23 years left to live.]
"Deva!" That was the only word going around his mind. He was certain now that the man was Deva.
What was he going to do? Resetting the loop at such times was the smartest decision. It would cost him a lot, but not as much as what he would lose if he faced a Deva. A Deva would always a Deva. Even permanent death wasn't out of the equation when facing such existences.
But before Abdin could finish his inner debating, the man turned his mount around and galloped toward the forest. In a matter of seconds, he disappeared from their sight. It wasn't only Abdin who gawked open-mouthed at the spot where the man had just vanished.
In the past, Devas had tried and failed to break the gates of his castles. But Silver Mask had done it with apparent ease. This could only mean that the man wasn't an ordinary Deva.
Abdin couldn't wrap his head around what just happened. Right now, there wasn't any gate at the city entrance, which meant there wasn't anything protecting the castle from the invaders. And the culprit had disappeared into a forest.
Muwadd was already prepared for it. While Abdin was trying to defend the castle, the wily old man had given his orders. His army pounced upon them, and all the six hundred disciples ran toward the free passage that used to be the gates.
"What are you waiting for?!" Abdin barked at Juwaira and her men, while he raised his hand and started sending bolts of lightning.
But this was an army of chosen warriors. They would dodge any bolt before it could reach them, and if they couldn't, they produced a seal and throw it upwards. The seal would emit some green glow and shield them, rendering the lightning harmless even when it touched them. And even that couldn't slow them down.
Abdin was forced to drop down from the wall and blocked the entrance. Approaching him were six hundred cultivators and, behind them, were the jungle men and the villagers with Barindana's remaining group. Each of them vied for a portion of the castle.
Meanwhile, Juwaira and her team faced the five leaders of the invaders.