Aziel looked at the boy sitting in a martial artist’s signature position – on his fore legs with hands rested on the thighs. To an outsider, he looked to be kneeling.

“So,” Aziel begun after giving Sam a onceover to take stock of his condition. “Give me your assessment of the situation.”

Sam eye’s sharpened and he relaxed his tense shoulders. Gathering his thoughts, he begun to recount his experience. “Before day’s peak I was searching the wilderness for the herbs assigned by Instructor Barak when I noticed a man in the woods. I found it strange and shadowed him to see where he came from.

“The foreigner was part of a large troop of what looked like mercenaries.”

“Why mercenaries?” Aziel asked.

“The group lacked uniformity so they could not be soldiers.”

Aziel nodded, motioning the boy to continue.

Sam furrowed his brows as he tried to remember the details of the group of men he saw. “The troop seemed to be…uhm… rushedly put together.”

“Hastily, you mean,” Aziel corrected.

“Yes, sir. They seem to be in clearly separate groups and some don’t seem to get along with each other,”

Neva sat opposite the pair paying no attention to the father-son duo. She was still engrossed in the board game in front of her. Her brows seemed to scrunch up further with every second that passed. Finally, she shook her head in resignation and turned her attention to her son who was fidgeting under Aziel’s military style questioning. The slight frown on her face disappeared and was replaced with a gentil smile.

When Sam finished his recounting, she knocked his forehead lightly to get his attention. “I see that you did not come back with the herbs,” Neva said in sign language.

“…” Sam was taken aback momentarily before smiling wryly. It seemed his parents did not care much for the news he had brought back. Where were these people getting their confidence from?

Noticing her son’s expression, Neva beckoned him over as she waved her hand at the game board in front of her. Immediately, the pieces on the board blurred before disappearing as if they had never existed in the first place. Left bare, the black and white of the checkered board began to slowly glow with shimmering white light completely bathing the surface in radiant luminescence. The board then expanded to about one and a half times its size as the light dimmed to reveal an astonishing sight.

It revealed a bird’s eye view of a copse of trees with canopies so thick one could on barely make out the ground beneath.

With another wave of Neva’s hand, the image on the square wooden board distorted slightly like waves on a water surface. When the image cleared next, it had zoomed in and now showed a gathering of people sitting in small groups. Some sat silently sharpening their blades while some engaged in light conversation. All in all, the atmosphere seemed rather calm and amicable. To Neva’s experienced gaze, however, she could see from the facial expressions of the people and the anxiety in the eyes of certain key individuals that the mood was actually quite strained.

Sam’s eyes widened in bewilderment when he saw the image in the board. These were the people that he had seen in the wilderness. He tapped his forefinger on the board in bafflement as he saw two black clothed figures reach the group from outside the image projection’s scope. The image rippled slightly at his touch as a ludicrous thought crossed his mind.

No way… He thought to himself. Could those be the people that were following him? There was no way, right?

Just as his mind was about to go down a rabbit’s hole of myriad thoughts, his father’s voice brought him back to the present situation.

“You say you want to become a paragon,” Aziel begun, as he picked up a glass of tea from a tray beside the couple. Its fragrance reinvigorated Sam’s tired body as he gulped saliva. “A person of unsurpassed might,” Aziel continued. “You are young and naturally ambitious, but there is much you don’t understand.”

Aziel blew on his tea as he fixed his gaze on the young boy still kneeling in front of him. He took a sip of tea to wet his throat before continuing. “You worship the Cloud Emperor for his benevolence in saving the people from the misery wrought by the wars of Forbidden King’s Plains but do you even know why that region was named thus? If your parents and clan was eradicated when you were young and many years later sire children only for your daughters to be raped by demons and sons eaten by abominable creatures, wouldn’t you also go mad?”

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Aziel noticed the various transformations of the boy’s facial expression and shook his head. The boy was too young and did not truly know the wretchedness of the world. He could only slowly uncover its rot one layer at a time as he grew older and experienced more.

“Samael,” Aziel spoke after the long pause. The boy’s furrowed brow eased slightly as he raised his lowered head to look at his father’s resolute and stern gaze. “Remember, not everyone who smiles at you is your friend.”

With that, Aziel fell silent. Neva tousled Sam’s hair as the family of three turned their attention to the goings on in the image on the board in front of them.

***

Back in the deep wilderness, the two people who had pursued Sam had just arrived and were reporting their findings to their leader. The man was tall with a burly physique and bushy red beard. He looked like a small mountain as he stood in front of the two black clothed men.

The leader stroked his beard as he listened intently to the report. His face was expressionless and his thoughts inscrutable. A short silence followed as he ruminated over the new information.

Tier 1 herbs. Those can fetch a hefty sum if we were to acquire them. The part of the cottage residing on top of a mana crystal vein is most likely true and the quality cannot be underestimated. But for there to only be two experts guarding them… highly unlikely. Reaching this point in his thoughts, the leader sighed. He coveted this fortune greatly but didn’t dare to act rashly. Even if he was wrong in his assumption of there being more experts, the mere fact that only two people were deemed sufficient to guard the ore vein meant that these two were absolute powerhouses.

The burly man suddenly stopped his pacing as his eyes glittered briefly. Or is it that the ore vein hasn’t yet been discovered and those two are just rogue cultivators who just happened to luck into fortune? He played with the idea briefly in his head. And that barrier formation… it can isolate the mana fluctuations from leaking out. Hmmm… at the very least it’s of superior grade as well. Maybe that’s why they didn’t attract the attention of those King-level beasts.

He shuddered at the thought of King-level beasts. Those were beings he did not dare confront. Just a casual swipe of their paws would reduce him to blood mist.

Sigh~ Inside that barrier, I cannot accurately gauge their strength. And even if they are weak, if they decide to hole up, there’s nothing I can do to them.

Sighing one more time, he put the matter to rest for the time being.

“That is all,” the leader dismissed the two men standing in front of him before looking at the encampment of people around him. He nodded at five men in five different groups before going into his tent that was set up close by. Let’s wait for the contractor’s envoy and see if an opportunity presents itself.

He did not have to wait long.

The sun was already setting when a fierce gale blew. The group of nearly a hundred men instantly snapped to attention as the dust and fallen leaves buffeted their faces. The trees swayed violently and seven men lifted their heads to stare at one point in the sky with solemn expressions. Feeling the tension in the air, the men around them tightened their grips on their weapons, awaiting a dangerous foe.

At this moment, the billowing winds circulated and the airborne leaves congregated. The air rotated followed along by the leaves and loose vegetation to form a verdant green vortex-like ring. And through this vortex… came a foot. The foot donned black boots accentuated with gold. It stepped on the air which seemed to ripple as if solidifying to the foots touch. Following the foot, the full form of a man wearing black robes with golden hems came into view. He stood in the air with such presence and majesty that the aura alone was enough to force some of the weaker scavengers to their knees.

Immediately after, two more figures stepped out of the vortex to stand in the air beside the black robed individual. These two had more restrained auras but rather than wearing black robes, they wore silver armour. Flowing behind the two new arrivals was a blue cape that extended into a hood. One of the individuals wielded a fearsome looking spear in their hands while the other wielded a sword sheathed and rested on his hip.

Everyone was shaken by the new arrivals. Sweat beaded their foreheads as they struggled to stand. It was only the seven men from earlier who somewhat managed to weather the aura bearing down on them. They immediately fell to one knee with heads lowered to pay their respects. “Greetings to the esteemed envoys!”

“We welcome the esteemed envoys!” The remaining men followed suit and fell to one knee.

The three persons remained standing in the air looking down at the people offering greetings. Their faces betrayed no expressions which made the men below them unsure whether they should stand or remain kneeling.

The forest fell eerily silent. Crickets hid under their rocks and the leaves on the trees didn’t dare rustle. The gale which had blown so fiercely mere moments before was as if a figment of imagination and was nowhere to be seen. The men who were still kneeling were like frozen statues only accompanied by the thumping of their hearts in their chests.

Sigh~

A light sigh permeated the air as the leaves finally remembered to move. The three envoys descended as if walking down a staircase of air and stood in front of the kneeling group.

“The target’s convoy should pass appear in the east in a few hours.” It was the man in the black cloak who spoke. His voice was deep but full of vigour. Though the hood of his cloak obscured his features, it was from his voice that he was not too old. “They should be exhausted and will likely stop to rest. If you follow the water stream, you should find their encampment.

“The convoy is small but the survivors are all mid to high rank warriors. There should be a mage of the eighth rank present as well.”

“Kill everyone but capture the children alive.” With these final words, the cloaked man turned and took a step before vanishing into thin air.

Following behind him, the two armoured men also turned and left.