CHAPTER 1226 EVIL SPIRIT (PART ONE)

Darren and his followers sneakily kept a low profile the entire way. The area was littered with killing

intents, and they didn't want others to catch wind of them.

Caleb and Davis were still crawling around the area Darren and his followers had left; carefully

scouring for any clues they left behind.

"What a powerful method! Even I'm having a hard time detecting it!"

Caleb used to be very confident about finding out their whereabouts, but after trying to detect them, his

efforts were moot. This was an unpleasant surprise.

"Sir, there are so many people in their force. They must have left some low-level warriors behind. If we

can catch one of them, we can interrogate them to get vital information. As long as we know where

they're headed, it'll be a piece of cake for you and me to catch up with them," said Davis.

"You've got a point." The place did leave some traces of the aura of the inferior warriors.

Whoosh!

In a flash, Caleb soared hundreds of kilometers through the air. He stopped and blocked off several

gangsters.

Feeling the powerful aura emanating from Caleb, the group of gangsters slumped to the ground in

bowing position. They trembled as they held their breath in fear.

"Tell me, where is your leader?" These words came out as sharp as knives since they were mixed with

the god's power, leaving the gangsters trembling even harder.

Despite their fears, these gangsters were believers of Darren. Since they swore absolutely loyal belief

in Darren, it would be impossible for them to tell Caleb where their leader went.

"I'll kill you if you don't tell me!"

Caleb cracked down and smashed three men's heads into bloody mist. He left one unlucky member

alive in order to get him to talk about Darren's location—using the three corpses as a stern warning.

The remaining gangster kept his silence despite his obviously terrified expression.

"Well then, if that's what you wish." Caleb raised his hand, ready to crack down on the last gangster's holds text © rights.

skull.

"Wait a moment, sir. You must know that Darren is a Defiant Master. He must have made them his

believers. They are probably now absolutely loyal to him. Even if we slaughter the whole lot of them,

they won't pipe a word."

Davis' wise words dawned on Caleb. "You're right, I completely forgot that he is indeed a Defiant

Master. It seems that it's not an easy feat to track him down."

"I've got just the solution for this, sir. Here!" Davis quickly whipped out a piece of paper.

"Memory Searching Rune?" Caleb read out with uncertainty.

"That's right. Sir, you have a good eye. These are the runes I collected many years ago. I have a dozen

of them. Once I use this rune, we will be able to search this man's memory to get the information we

need."

"Great. How long will it take?" Caleb asked.

"I don't have much Spirit Power left, so I'll need to scour his memory slowly. I estimate it'll take me at

least half a month to a month even," said Davis.

"That's a long time. But as long as I know where he's gone, I can catch up to him even if he's had half a

year's lead, let alone a mere half a month. You may begin the search."

"As you wish."

In a farther location, Darren and his followers still trudging along. "Sir, there is a swamp ahead. We

must be careful," Wilson reminded.

"We can just fly past it," chimed in Lindsay.

"No, we can't. Princess Lindsay, that swamp isn't that big, but all living creatures are strictly prohibited

from flying over it," said Wilson in a stern voice.

"Why not?"

"Simply because the owner of the swamp did not allow anyone to do so. Any passers-by must first pay

their respects to the owner, and walk through the swamp on foot."

"Humph! Who is this person? What makes him think that everyone who passes through should pay

their respects?" With a cold snort, Lindsay added, "What if a warrior at the Celestial God Realm wants

to fly past it, would he still dare to ask him to walk through the swamp?"

"Princess Lindsay, even the warriors at the Celestial God Realm usually have to give the owner prior

notice before they can pass through his swamp," said Wilson, with a chuckle.

"Really?"

"Yes. It is said that an arrogant warrior at the low-level of the Celestial God Realm once tried to fly over

it without telling the owner. He was swiftly pulled face-first into the muddy ground. Then the owner

didn't allow him to leave the swamp alive until the man knelt down for three days and three nights in

apology," continued Wilson.

"I wouldn't trust baseless rumors." Lindsay was actually starting to believe in what Wilson was telling

them, but she couldn't let him tarnish her pride.

"Let's go to meet the owner then. I would rather believe Wilson than risk doubting his warnings." To

avoid any unnecessary trouble, Darren decided to follow Wilson's heed.

"Okay, everyone come with me." Wilson started to lead the way.

While they were on their way through the swamp, they could barely see their steps through the thick

fog. Beneath this thick fog lay a black and ominous swamp filled with a miasma of rotten plant odors.

"Be careful, everyone. This swamp is dangerous. A wild beast could sneak up on you at any given

moment," Wilson reminded.

Darren and the others all stayed alert as they carefully trudged through the swamp.

"Alas! If only the Water Kylin was here," sighed Finley, dropping his shoulders in resignation.

"When did the Water Kylin leave the Ancestral Land?" Darren asked.

"After you left, someone sent him away to the beast domain. As he is a beast, he is not allowed to stay

in human territory," explained Finley.

"You'll see him again in the future, I'm sure of it. You two were always at each other's throats, right?

Could it be that you're actually starting to miss him?" said Darren with a playful smirk.

"Whatever, I just think that if he was here, his beastly nose could sniff out the danger for us," Finley

said in disdain.

Darren shook his head as he chuckled at Finley's denial.

After Darren and the others walked about twenty or thirty kilometers, they didn't seem to encounter any

dangerous situations.

However, it was exactly this kind of peace that made Wilson feel terribly uneasy.

"Sir, I feel something is amiss. It's a weird gut feeling," Wilson stopped and said with furrowed brows.

"What is wrong?" Lindsay asked. When she looked around, she found that everything seemed alright,

and Darren didn't have any strange feelings about the place either.

"This can't be right. Something is definitely wrong here," said Wilson, as he turned to face the rest of

the party. Suddenly, his expression turned into a mix of shock and horror.

"What's the matter?"

Darren immediately asked when he saw the look of terror on Wilson's face.

"Sir, five members of our team have disappeared!" Wilson's gut feeling was right. There were indeed

fewer people than they had originally set out with.

Darren made a headcount with great haste. There had been forty-eight people in his team, but now,

there were only forty-three people. Five of them were really missing!

They didn't sense anything different as they moved forward!

"Maybe some of them slipped away in the middle of our journey?" said Jefferson.

"Don't be silly. They are all Darren's believers and they are absolutely loyal. They would never just slip

away." Wilson frowned.

"I agree with you. There is only one possibility. They must have been killed by some unknown force,"

Jefferson said. He immediately took up his axe and released his god's sense, keeping a watchful eye

on the surroundings.

"Duke, do you feel anything?"

Darren asked as he summoned Duke to come towards him.

"No, I didn't feel anything unusual. I've been walking while healing my wounds, but I didn't sense any

danger."

"How strange!" Lindsay murmured, "Duke has the Primeval Bloodline of the beasts. If beasts killed the

missing men, he would have sensed it by now. So it couldn't be a beast that snuck up on our team."

"Then what could it be? If it can kill people right under our noses, this means that its strength far

surpasses ours," said Wilson fearfully.

"Not necessarily," Finley shook his head and said. "If it was really stronger than us, why did it have to

be so stealthy about its attack? If this was a powerful foe, they'd fight us head on."

Finley's words made perfect sense to all of them.