After spending days in the sun and nights under the moonlight, it did seem strange to go down the mountain again. Not because of the feeling of emptiness that for some reason assaulted Leo the moment he left her, but because of the mist that engulfed everything as soon as he got closer to the dryad dwelling place.
The moment he inhaled and his skin touched the small water particles in the air, Leo felt how poison began to spread inside his body. It was a peculiar feeling, but he immediately realized that what Izel felt was hundreds, probably thousands of times more intense. With how pure she was from the living up on the mountain, her sensitivity towards anything toxic was definitely much higher than his.
‘Wait …’ Leo suddenly realized, ‘Just living on the mountain couldn’t make someone pure and she couldn’t use the moonstone on regular basis either … in that case … was it the sun or the moon that kept purifying her? Or both?’
This was an interesting observation that allowed him to take his mind of Izel for a moment, but unfortunately it was currently of no use.
Out of habit Leo chugged down an antidote, but to his great surprise he realized that even though it did neutralize most of the toxicity from the environment, it left a toxic footprint on his digestive system. Of course, technically he already knew it worked this way, but this was his first time actually feeling it.
He couldn’t figure out if becoming so sensitive with poison was good or bad, but no matter what he had to return to the Aurora mortal realm as soon as possible. While trying to ignore the mist, Leo rushed down the mountain and then through the city, and further south – towards the teleportation platform.
In order to not get recognized by the old witch in case he ran into her by some unlucky chance, he made a crude face mask. Unsurprisingly his look attracted more attention from passersby, but at least no one could tell who he was. He spent the night in the southern part of the city and in the morning washed up and hurried southwards.
After leaving the Dryad mountain city, Leo didn’t need to worry about breaking hanging bridges and platforms and could finally speed up. To occupy his own mind, he began to develop a pseudo-Lightning dash technique – jumping from tree to tree using Qi in order to propel himself further and to increase the movement speed.
After trying out different ways of optimizing the Qi flow for half a day, he suddenly had another observation, but this time actually useful. For some reason the region around his dantian remained pure and all the toxins were naturally neutralized by the Qi he was directing from it towards the feet. Similarly, regions around the Qi pathways in legs and both feet got cleansed the more he ran and the more Qi he discharged.
While it gave Leo ideas how to self-cleanse himself in the future, currently the more Qi he consumed, the more he naturally absorbed from the environment and as the result the rest of his body accumulated toxins faster. Thus him using Qi techniques to increase the movement speed was kind of a double edged sword – on one hand he could return sooner, but on the other most of his body was getting poisoned at increased rate. In the end Leo found some middle ground and comfortably dashed from tree to tree to the south, hoping to not miss the Old Hebe’s village.
Of course, most of the time it was hard to concentrate on the movement and his mind involuntarily wondered away and usually landed on the top of the mountain, somewhere near Izel’s pavilion. At first his mood dropped every time it happened – after all it was a brief marriage and even though he tried quite hard, it failed. He would’ve loved to blame the moody high dryad, but they both were parts of this relationship and it was highly likely he had done something wrong as well.
Fortunately in his efforts to divert the attention Leo remembered Jack’s stories where his friend described his many love conquests. If he went by those standards, then for the past month he had only a fling and to feel bad just because it ended was silly. Multiple times Jack promised there were countless women waiting for them to become strong and rich and since he now had several boxes full of beast cores in his amulet and had recently stepped into the Core formation stage, he should be considered quite the catch back in the sect.
In fact, Leo began to wonder if he would be granted an elder’s position immediately upon his return and how would this standing change the attitude of the women in the holy city Avila. Jack mentioned there were even special establishments where women worshiped men like him and all he had to do was to pay a small fee which wasn’t a problem anymore – after all he was rich!
When a month later he arrived at Old Hebe’s village, Leo decided to increase his financial standing even further and for couple of days hunted the greenlander beasts. Now that he formed his core, it became a child’s play and he continued until they refused to show their ugly faces from below their hill. Of course, the fact that he could pay back for the deaths of his fellow sect mates was additional bonus, but after a year had passed he couldn’t find any traces of what transpired back then.
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Fortunately the markings they left on the trees were still there and Leo easily found the teleportation platform. It took him a bit of willpower to resist the temptation to go directly to the Golden city, but he figured it would be more fun to go together with Jack and then severe all ties with the Sacred Order once and for all.
Sadly it turned out to not be that easy.
When Leo’s sight adjusted after the familiar flash of light, he found himself in the Sacred Order’s teleportation building. Even though it was an early morning, for some reason there was not a single living soul there. It was confusing since this should’ve been one of the most guarded places in the sect, but when he stepped out on the main square, Leo was forced to question whether he was dreaming or not. The whole sect was completely void of people, without a single living soul around! Of course, there were still birds chirping in bushes and trees, but for some reason the sect was deserted by disciples and elders.
The name ‘Lucky Leo’ was still engraved on one of the stone slates at the side of the square and Leo’s mood suddenly fell realizing that instead of a dream this might turn into a nightmare. He was gone for over two years and for some reason back home there was still someone who held a grudge towards him.
‘So be it!’ He sighed and quickly found a remote spot to change his tree bark clothing.
At first he intended to wear the regular Sacred Order’s disciple’s set, but then realized that in case the sect didn’t exist anymore, it might be safer to wear the black outfit he got in the Golden city. After he was all nicely dressed up, Leo put the Cleaver on his back and strolled towards the Jack’s place. First of all he needed to figure out what was going on, then take a detox bath and sleep off the exhaustion that had accumulated since he left the Dryad mountain city. Afterwards they would leave to the Golden city and never come back.
Unfortunately it really turned out to be a nightmare and not a dream after all.
“Halt! You there! Who are you and what are you doing here?!” A familiar, elderly voice startled Leo.
For a moment he really thought he might be the only one left in the sect, but hearing the Enforcement division’s head’s, elder Cross’s, voice was definitely a bad sign.
“I’m back!” Leo turned towards the elder and said, helplessly spreading his hands.
“You!” For some reason it seemed that the elder was angry at him returning, “And now at all times! This can not be a coincidence! Follow me!”
“Alright!” Leo nodded and, seeing they rushed towards the eastern outskirts of the sect, asked, “Where are we going? I think I should meet the sect master as soon as possible.”
“Ye … you’ll meet her! Just wait!” Elder’s hostility was confusing to Leo, but what he didn’t know was that the elder was currently holding back to not kill ‘the jinx’ on the spot. Of course, if he tried, he would’ve been out for a surprise, but luckily elder Cross managed to keep himself together.
Either it was because he was trying not to attack Leo or his mind was busy with the other stuff, but in the rush elder Cross didn’t notice Leo easily kept up with him even though he himself was at the late Core formation stage. After the great war between the Voodoo sect and the Sacred Order there was only a handful of Nascent soul stage cultivators left in the Aurora mortal realm and someone who had formed their core were considered the cream of the crop. Every sect tried to tempt such experts in various ways to join them, they were promised positions of elders and impressive financial bonuses among other benefits. Because of that elder Cross simply couldn’t think of a regular disciple suddenly reaching his ‘heights’ and standing on an equal footing.
Leo didn’t think of it either. From the moment he arrived he felt there was something amiss and after he and elder Cross rushed a couple of miles, he finally found out what.
After leaving the forest located right next to the sect, they arrived at a wide field. It would’ve been fine if they were only out for a walk to enjoy the scenery, but unfortunately they were met by a large crowd of the Sacred Order’s disciples.
Seeing the young people nervously standing together in neat rows, Leo immediately realized what this was and why he had this ominous feeling. He had seen this once, many years ago – back then he was living in the Voodoo sect. When the Sacred Order arrived, the disciples also were gathered this way, except back then they were half naked and tattooed all over.
Leo’s first impulse was to simply charge away, in fact, if he tried, apart from the sect master, there was unlikely anyone else who could catch him. Unfortunately Jack was almost guaranteed somewhere in the crowd and if the war went anywhere near like the last one, it was very likely for him to perish among thousands of others.
Of course, Leo didn’t give a damn about the others, but he had to get his best friend out. If they managed to leave this place, they could be in the Golden city before noon – there was no one overseeing the teleportation building in the sect and that was all Leo needed.
“Let me pass! To the side!” Elder Cross battled through the rows of the Sacred Order’s disciples and Leo silently followed, trying to figure out a way to escape the current predicament.
It didn’t take long for them to get through, but what Leo saw made his mood drop even further – even a larger crowd stood few hundred yards away. He didn’t recognize the colors the thousands of people were dressed in, but it didn’t matter – the forces on the opposite side were probably double the amount compared to the Sacred Order’s.
There was a small group of people gathered between the two armies. Besides lady Evelyn and her daughter, and division heads of the Sacred order elder Payne, elder Willis and elder Cooper, there were two men dressed in similar colors the opposing army was, two elderly men dressed in dark robes and one person whom Leo could actually recognize.
He was floating in a cross-legged position with eyes closed as if nothing that went on mattered, but the rest, no matter how agitated they were, did their best to not show any disrespect. His name was Andren and he was the monk who once interrogated Leo back in the Voodoo sect and he also was the one who did the ‘investigation’ during the incident the two rank seven beasts died on the island with the Divine tribulation trees.