It all happened right after sunrise in a small village that maybe housed around two thousand people only. Their little town was surrounded by the Imperial Army led by black-clothed people. Nobody was allowed to go near the village, nor were they allowed to leave it. If anyone tried, they were immediately detained and carried away, scaring the residents to death. The military leaders present all knew that they were under the direct command of the Shadow Corps, the organization directly under the Emperor. They were answering only to him and nobody else. Their orders were simple. Surround the village of Katura and wait for further instructions. Capture anyone who tries to leave, and if there are any kind of cultivators, mercenaries, or any local militia who try to put up a resistance, put them to death without question or warnings. Only one man was daring to raise his voice against these orders, and he was in a white tent a few meters away from the quarantined village. He stood before Ren and Ariana, and he was the Imperial General Ultar.

"I still can't agree to this!" He said with a raised voice, clearly annoyed at what was happening. Especially because he was the general who was responsible for the security of the empire and how the defensive forces worked, moved, and acted.

"I know." Ren nodded calmly, sipping on a cup of coffee. She was standing before a table that had the layout of the small town with dark red circles around multiple buildings. "Sadly, this is not something you can have a say in."

"Oh? I think I DO have a say in it! I am THE General of the defense units, remember? Even though you are the daughter of one ex-general, you are not part of the military! He already left his post long ago, and even if Xendar was still a General, you would be out of line, ordering soldiers around like this! You are not an officer! Not even with your rank as a 'princess'! You just married into the royal family, but you are not a descendant of it!" He argued with clear anger. A full regiment of people was taken away from under him in just one night, led out by Ren to this out-of-nowhere village to cause a scene.

"Master, should I escort him away?" Ariana asked, standing beside Ren with arms crossed behind her back, watching Ultar with uninterested eyes.

"What?!" Ultar flinched, now seething with even more anger than before.

"Relax!" Ren chuckled, putting down her cup. “Look, General Ultar… I am not here to cause a scene or take away your post. This is something way above you, and I ask you to not interfere, or I would need to look at you as part of them."

"Them? Part of who?" He asked with a provoking voice, leaning forward and placing his hands on the table. He knew what she meant, but he was not about to take an insult just like that.

"Ironclaw," Ariana answered instead of Ren.

"Preposterous! Since those scums appeared, I have been working against them non-stop! I lost a lot of good men to them! What makes you think I may be a part of them?! Halt your tongue at this instant and NEVER dare to question my LOYALTY to the Empire!" Ultar roared, clearly audible even outside of their tent.

"I know you are plagued by their presence; that is why I show patience towards you." Ren sighed a little, rubbing her forehead. "You are a good general but not a good cultivator."

"You-!" He spat flames from his eyes but choked on his words as Ren's aura made him silent for a millisecond. Suddenly, he couldn't force the air out of his lungs to speak and could only gawk silently.

"You are only at the 8th stage of body refinement." Ariana continued, finishing her Master's thoughts. "You are good at leading armies, but times are changing. Soon, more and more experts will show up, and when that happens, the style of fighting you generals are used to is going to be ineffective. Your personal strength is going to be insufficient for those times."

"Why do you think the Empire had the Shadow Corps?" Ren asked him a question, drawing back her aura. "Because sometimes personal strength is the requirement. We are dealing with a dozen Harmony Experts in this village." She explained to him as Ultar's mouth opened wide, but soon he shook his head.

"So what? I can defeat even two of them by myself." He leaned backward, crossing his arms.

"Haaahh…" Ren sighed, shaking his head. "We have different perceptions of what the word expert meant in my sentence."

"What my Master tries to tell you," Ariana raised her voice, clearly annoyed by the man's constant pushbacks. "Are the cultivators in this village reaching Harmony at the minimum 7th stage? What you are talking about are those old relics from the past who chose to harmonize themselves at a low level! Even the outer disciples in our Sect could beat them! Hmf!"

"Easy, easy…" Ren giggled, hugging her waist to calm her down. "The world is still adjusting… The Empire is going to need at least 100 years to fully adapt to the new notions."

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Ultar was baffled by their words and antics, especially seeing how Ariana's cold face turned into a shy and bashful girl at a moment's notice, but he forced himself to remain calm and think it through before speaking up again.

"What you are saying is… there is a frightening force in that village?"

"Something like that. Yes." Ren smiled softly. "The scariest part is that they don't know they are cultivators. They are people from the Kingdom, and they are under the brainwashing technique of the previous king, my great-great-grandfather Rudrick."

"What?!" He blinked his eyes with surprise. Hearing that such danger could lurk this deep into the Empire's territory was a big blemish on his role as the General of Defence.

"This is why we need to seal away this village," Ren said as she leaned forward with a serious look. "The agents placed here are literally brainwashed. Until they are triggered, their cultivation is suppressed, and they act as normal humans. For now, they are part of the Empire. Our intel suggests that there are exactly 12 such agents here. My disciple is going to draw them out, and we are going to capture them."

"What about the… civilians? If a fight breaks out inside the town, there are going to be countless casualties amongst them!" Ultar said as he looked at them, horrified by the notion.

"That is why I came here personally," Ren said as she looked into his eyes. "My disciple can identify them without anyone noticing. She had already sniffed out the twelve. We are just narrowing down their positions as we speak." She pointed at the map and the red circles drawn on it by Ariana. "After we marked them all, I'm going to take them out. The army is here to make sure nobody interferes with us. After the cultivators are dealt with, I'll still need the army and your help."

"With what?" He asked, now with a much calmer voice, watching the map on the table.

"We will need to scan and question everyone living here. See if they are really people of the Empire or if they are agents that were placed here. Don't worry; Ariana will help you with that, too. I'll also have another disciple of ours help you out with it. She is sensitive to souls, so the two of them are going to tell you easily if there is a problem with the person's memories, feelings, etc."

Just as she finished, Nameless walked into the tent, ignoring Ultar completely, walking up to Ren directly.

"The leader of the village wants a meeting and is outraged by what is happening."

"Good. I'll go in with Ariana and have a talk with him. Get ready!"

"Yes!" He saluted, and as the two girls left, he turned towards Ultar with a hushed voice. "Better keep yourself in check, General Ultar. This operation is by order of Aerthus X. If you do one more thing that I deem dangerous to this mission and as a sign that you are part of Ironclaw, I'll deliver your head to the Emperor by tonight." His aura was clearly dark and evil as it seeped into Ultar's veins, freezing him completely and making sweat trickle down his spine. "People can be replaced… the Empire is eternal," Nameless whispered into his ear before leaving, going after Ren and Ariana.

Outside, Ren and Ariana were already walking up to the village where a deathly pale, middle-aged man was waiting with four others dressed in somewhat expensive clothing. While walking closer, Ariana already sent over a voice transmission to Ren.

"Master, none of them are cultivators, but I sense something… nefarious from the village leader."

"Towards whom? Us?" She asked back, her face not changing at all, just watching the group as they neared them.

"No… I think… towards the village? It is murky, but he is clearly hating something or someone very, very much so. It is a mix between hate and blame."

"If I need to guess, he probably knew that Ironclaw set up a base here. Look at his clothes; those are from the capital, and usually, aristocrats living there are the ones who can afford them."

"So he is in on the whole thing." A small smile crept up on Ariana's face.

"Should be and even received a good sum of money for his cooperation." Ren nodded.

"Why not brainwash him too?" Ariana asked by reflex.

"The one who did the memory alteration must be one of the agents placed here… there is a limit to everyone's abilities," Ren said as she looked at her with a smile. When they arrived before them, they were greeted by the trembling voice of the village leader.

"We… we don't know what we have done, but I can assure you, there must be a misunderstanding!"

"Your village is suspected of high treason," Ren explained with a clear voice, and one of the members of the delegation fainted as soon as he heard her.

"Anyone who is found guilty," Nameless' cold voice echoed in their ears, bringing a chill to the air around them. It was washing through everyone with a winter-like breath. "Is going to be beheaded. This is his majesty's orders." He said, unfurling a paper that lit up with a golden color, starting to levitate by itself. It was displaying the Imperial Seal above the village so everyone could see it, no matter where they were.

“B-but… we did… nothing…” Their leader stuttered, but Ren's voice cut him short.

"Nameless. Take him away; he knows about it." She said while walking past them with Ariana in tow. The man suddenly pissed himself as his eyes met Nameless's eyes, and he saw the soldiers coming forward, grabbing him by the arms.

"I do not! I'm not with them!" He screeched, but he was quickly dragged away by the officers.

"Them?" Ariana looked back with a smirk. "We said nothing about… them~"

"Come." Ren smiled as she floated upwards. "Let's split them up! I'll draw out the rats; each of us can take four~" She giggled, flexing her fingers as the clear sky started to darken with clouds while Ariana and Nameless followed her lead. "From now on, I'll only stop when I have Rudrick's head in my hands…" She breathed out slowly while above them, a sea of purple lightning flashed amongst the clouds. They were forming a veil of electricity above not the village but the whole region. The thunder arrived immediately with an ear-shattering ferocity and with such a force that it sent shockwaves through the air, shaking the people down below. It seemed like that judgment from the heavens had arrived. "Leave only one of them alive."