Inside a large and active mansion was a large room was the Patriarch's room filled with martial arts and cultivation techniques.
"Father, now that we have given that thing to the Sect Leader the last step of your plan is accomplished what's next," The man asked.
"Simple, after I assume the mantle of Sect Leader I will use my authority to install those who support me into positions of power, so I can then invest resources to improve the family and improve our foundation for the future," The man Kraven would have recognised as his father Benjamin Evergreen said.
"The only barrier we face is the lack of a
"That will be a barrier my Father will easily overcome once the
"You should always plan for the unexpected to happen, Byron, and lacking a cultivation technique of the subsequent realm ends your progress no matter how talented you are," Howard said trying to instill a lesson into his much younger cousin.
"You seem to have gotten onto quite the high horse since everyone is treating you like the next Martial Soul realm in our family," The man now revealed to be Byron Evergreen Kraven's oldest brother said angrily.
"Enough of your bickering, Howard is correct that is the biggest barrier we face, as the
Just as Byron was about to say something the door to the office was pushed open as a panicked servant ran in letter in hand.
"Patriarch, the Sect Leader has sent a letter," The man said.
"Thank you, you can leave," Benjamin said as the man handed the letter over, bowed, and left the room closing the door behind him.
"NO, THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!" Benjamin shouted as he began to release oppressive Wood Qi.
"Uncle, what is wrong," Howard said as he was barely able to resist the Qi leaking into the room.
"The object never made it to the Sect Master, he wants to see me about why this is," Benjamin said reining in his Qi.
"That's impossible I know I only sent regular Qi Gathering mercenaries to avoid suspicion but they should not have encountered any trouble along their route," Byron said as he had recovered from the Qi released from his Father.
"If I'm not wrong a new bandit group recently moved to the local area, my gut is saying that they are involved, they may even still have the object, I will go with some men and find them if you wish Uncle," Howard said trying to resolve the situation.
"No, I will go with you personally," Benjamin replied barely able to contain his rage.
"Understood, Uncle when do you wish to leave," Howard said.
"Now," Benjamin said as he and Howard walked outside and flew away in a certain direction.
"Damn it I didn't think those bandits I let stay in the territory would do something so stupid," Byron said looking extremely distressed.
"From the reports I have gathered they began operation in the area about 2 weeks ago but they didn't do much to get on our radar before this, mainly robbing farms or robbing small merchants," Howard reported the information he had gathered on the bandits to his Uncle.
"2 weeks and suddenly they think they can interfere with powers so far above them, it seems they've become very arrogant," Benjamin said as he could not believe that a plan that had brewing for 10 years could be destroyed by some insect-like bandits.
"We are at the location where their base is hidden Uncle," Howard reported.
Hearing this Benjamin unleashed his Martial Soul and a gigantic evergreen tree appeared behind him, the very ground was torn apart as tree roots that had been buried for hundreds of years obeyed the command of his Martial Soul and uncovered the base hidden beneath them, the look of fear on the bandits faces was that of complete horror as the very ground shielding them torn away and they were exposed to the sun.
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"This is the power of a cultivator that used an Evergreen sapling to form his martial soul incredible," Howard thought as he watched the forest obey his Uncle's Martial Soul.
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!!!" a man shouted but was quickly crushed by one of the tree roots.
"I am Benjamin Evergreen, my family owns the very land that you steal and kill on so you better show some respect," Benjamin said coldly.
"Do any of you know of a group of 5 Qi Gathering mercenaries that should have come through here about 3 days ago?" Howard said.
"Whoever answers the question gets to live," Benjamin said as he radiated such intense Killing intent that nobody doubted his words.
"I do, we attacked them thinking they had something valuable as they were leaving at night but all they had was some kid in rags, who had been completely knocked out," a bandit said hoping that he would be spared.
"JOHN, YOU BASTARD!!" another bandit screamed turning to attack the bandit called John, but a tree root through the heart cut his attack short.
"Continue," Benjamin said coldly not even sparing a glance at the man he had just killed.
"Yes, after we discovered that they had nothing of value we were going to dispose of the child but just as we were about to a slave wagon was passing by and we sold him," John said pleadingly.
"How much," Benjamin said his face darkening.
"1 Gold Coin," Just as John said that he felt a root shoot through his heart.
"1 Gold Coin, my meticulous plans over the past 10 years ruined and all for 1 gold coin," Benjamin said with no emotion at all.
Howard knew fine well that if he tried to say anything chances are he would be attacked.
"Find out everything you can about this slave trader that passed through here," Benjamin said.
"Yes, Uncle I will have my men find the illegal slave market he attended," Howard hastily replied.
With a wave of his hand, all the tree roots buried themselves back into the ground burying the corpses of all the bandits and removing all evidence of the slaughter.
Howard spent the following months looking through all records of illegal slave auctions, which despite them being illegal were quite frequent, but he had finally found the auctions that the slave trader had attended, as he was considering informing his Uncle immediately he decided to delay that and instead dig further into the mysterious man.
"He attended a total of 4 auctions only buying children 17 and below, not even sparing a glance at the people with a cultivation, is that right," Howard asked the man that he had pinned to the ground.
"Yes, that's right we just thought he had a sick hobby but you know gold is gold," the man dressed in what had been extravagant jewelry and fine clothes before Howard and his men had attacked the underground slave auction attacked him and killed a large number of his guards and patrons.
"What did he look like?" Howard questioned.
"About 6ft muscular build shoulder-length silver hair, blue eyes, and 20 odd years old, he wore an overcoat so I didn't see any clothing or group markings on his wagon that's all I've got, so can you please let me go," The man said hoping that giving information would save his life unfortunately for him he was wrong.
"Thank you for the information I'll let you go now," Howard said as he stabbed his spear through the man's heart.
"You bastard," the man said with his dying breath.
"Boss we found all the sales records over here," One of Howard's men said.
"Show me," Howard said.
The sales records matched what the owner had said, he had only bought children under the age of 18, this didn't make sense to Howard, especially after seeing the extortionate prices they were charging for the children, you could buy body tempering 1-6 stage cultivators for less, so why buy the cultivation less children.
"Unless that was a requirement they had to fit for him to buy them, but why buy children with no cultivation if you're just going to train them, it would be more cost-effective to buy the ones with more cultivation," Howard thought when it suddenly hit him.
"Sects don't accept disciples with cultivation, and most of them are at the age when you would enter a sect," Howard made a sudden realisation.
Following this realisation Howard continued to follow the slave trader's trail as best he could which led him to an inn.
"Two disciples were killed here less than 2 days ago?" Howard questioned the owner.
"Yes, a young man with silver hair killed them as they were celebrating reaching the Qi Gathering stage," The owner said
"Could you describe the event that led up to the murder?" Howard asked.
"Yes it was a stormy night the inn was quite full, and the disciples were celebrating becoming Qi Gathering realms when a man who had stopped to get some supplies laughed when they mentioned that they had used a Low-Tier Qi Gathering technique to breakthrough, he said that there was no point in being so weak in this world which wounded the pride of the disciples and they attacked the man but it was pointless he moved so quickly they missed, despite the fact I believe he could have killed them instantly he took his time toying with them before getting bored and killing them," The owner said clearly affected by having to relive a painful memory.
"I'm sorry for making you remember that but, do you know what sect they were a part of?" Howard asked.
"Yes, they were disciples of the
"Do you know what direction the murderer went?" Howard asked.
"He went north," along the mountain path," The owner said.
"Thank you for your time," Howard said as left the inn.
Howard began to follow the path the owner said that Jason had taken and followed to an unassuming building which was the end of the trail that Howard had been following.
"There's nothing here no signs of anything at all but this is where the trail goes dead," Howard said confused because all the tracks led him here.
Howard annoyed that he did not find them returned home and reported to the Patriarch.
"That is all the evidence that I could find Uncle," Howard said recapping his whole investigation to Benjamin.
"So you believe that the object could have been taken to a sect to be a disciple?" Benjamin asked.
"It wouldn't be the first time the evil sects have entered the righteous sects' territory to take children to be slaves or disciples," Howard said having made sure to find evidence to make him not sound crazy.
"If that is the case then that useless thing is someone's slave right now or he's already been eaten by someone," Benjamin said dispiritedly having completely lost hope of finding Kraven or as he calls him the object.
At the same time, the desired object had just started to complete the first layer of a Peak-Tier cultivation technique.