A large number of demon ants were huddled together. There were hundreds and hundreds of them.

‘She must be very unlucky to have encountered so many of them,’ Drake thought. However, his attention was quickly captured by what was happening in the horde.

A woman jumped into the air from the centre. Though Drake couldn’t see her clearly, he spotted her wielding a large, round hammer, taller than her.

The woman spoke loudly, “Mountain Splitter!” as she raised the hammer and plunged. Her hammer grew in size from a little over five feet to more than fifteen feet, and the round hammerhead also expanded to be several feet wide.

A loud explosion echoed from the battlefield as the woman crushed dozens of demons with her huge hammer. Fierce winds assaulted Drake’s party, but they easily ignored it and continued forward.

It was at this moment that the woman noticed Drake’s party approaching and became slightly wary. She stood elegantly at the tip of her hammer – which had now returned to its normal size – and observed them closely, while the demons around them were still recovering from her attack. The moonlight illuminated her face with a tinge of red, which combined with her stern expression to give her an ominous aura.

“Firestorm!”

“Rain!”

“Solar barrage!”

“Wind blade!”

They each unleashed their respective attacks and swept through the demon horde.

Seeing that they were helping her, the woman heaved a sigh of relief and picked up her hammer. She spun the hammer over her head repeatedly until it started rotating rapidly.

“Crushing maelstrom!” she yelled and released her hammer into the horde. The hammer rotated rapidly while travelling in an arc and crushed every demon it made contact with. Almost fifty demons had died before it returned cleanly back to her hands.

With all of them working together, the demon horde became a pile of corpses in less than a minute and littered the floor. After making sure there were no more demons left, Drake’s party finally walked up to the woman and faced her.

She was fair-skinned and had white hair with purple tips that came up her shoulders. Her white and purple robes flowed over her slim figure which contrasted her huge, also purple, hammer, and ferocious fighting style.

“Thank you for your help,” she spoke with a strong, but sincere voice.

“No problem,” Blaze replied and then introduced himself. “I’m Blaze Emberclaw, from the Emberclaw tribe. Are you from the Myriad Sword Palace?” he asked, looking at the insignia stitched onto her robe, just below her neck.

She didn’t reply immediately but looked over Blaze’s large figure and focused on his horns. For a moment, her mouth slightly opened in shock, but then she returned to normal.

“Yes, I am Farisa Heartwood from the Myriad Sword Palace,” she hesitated for a moment then asked, “Are you... really from the dragon race?”

“Ha, yes I am,” he laughed, used to this reaction.

“I see,” Farisa replied. She recollected hearing about a party with a dragon and dryad upon entering Basindale, so her eyes instinctively scanned the group and noticed Sylvia.

“I am Sylvia Everglen, from the Everglen tribe,” Sylvia introduced herself casually.

Helen also introduced herself, and finally, Drake. Unexpectedly, Farisa appeared most surprised at hearing Drake’s name.

“Sorry, but what did you say your family name was?” she asked, staring at Drake.

“Um… Reynard?” Drake replied, slightly confused at her reaction.

Farisa thought for a moment then asked something even more unexpected. “Would you, by any chance, have a brother called Elwin?”

Drake’s eyes widened, hearing that name after a long time. Many thoughts ran through his mind, but he simply replied, “Yes.”

“Really?” she asked again. “Emerald hair, steel body martial artist?”

Drake was puzzled. How did she know his brother?

“Yes, that’s my brother. How do you know him?”

“I see…” she replied, as if understanding something. “You probably thought that your brother was dead right?”

Drake was stunned. What did that mean? Was Elwin not dead? Didn’t Hazezel send him on a suicide mission?

“Ye.. yes..? Is that not true?” he asked hesitatingly.

Farisa smiled. “No, actually he was about to die when an elder whom our sect had sent out to investigate the Beast Woods, found and rescued him.”

Drake’s eyes widened again and a flurry of emotions filled his chest. He stepped forward and asked desperately, “Really? Is that true? Where is he now?”

“Don’t worry, he’s fine,” she replied calmly with a smile. “In fact, due to his talent, he immediately joined the inner sect of our Myriad Sword Palace and was even accepted as a personal disciple to the elder who rescued him. He managed to rank fourth in our inner sect competition and came to join this inheritance as well!”

Drake was speechless!

He thought that his brother was dead all this time, but it turned out that he was still alive! After everything that happened with Hazezel, for almost a year, Drake believed that the only real family he had left in this world was Astoria. He never imagined in his wildest dreams that he would find his eldest brother, in this inheritance.

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Thousands of thoughts and a myriad of emotions flowed through Drake and he just stood there for a while, as if he was frozen in the spot. Everyone looked at him with slight pity but didn’t say anything.

After a few moments, Drake recovered and exhaled deeply.

“I see…” he said, his voice a little shaky.

He moved his mouth as if trying to say something but was struggling to find the right words. After another few moments, he said with a smile, “Thank you for telling me,” before becoming quiet again.

“No problem,” she replied. A second later, her expression changed as if she remembered something, and spoke out. “That reminds me, your second brother, Hazezel, is also alive and in our Myriad Sword Palace. I almost forgot since he’s only an outer sect disciple, but Elwin often talks about and spends time with him, so I remembered.”

Drake’s smile disappeared.

Hazezel!

In both his previous life and now, no one had betrayed and hurt him like Hazezel. Although he couldn’t bring himself to hate his brother, he could not forgive him. Hazezel was the last person that he wanted to ever think about or encounter. Drake just wanted to forget that he ever existed at all.

However, life didn’t work that way.

In a twist of events, Elwin and Hazezel had ended up together in the same sect, and it seemed like they were on good terms. For a moment, Drake was confused but then he realised that literally no one except him knew about Hazezel’s betrayal, his true nature. And so, Elwin was loving and spending time with the person who attempted to kill him and actually killed his father.

Drake didn’t know how to react to this. A whole new flurry of thoughts and emotions rose within Drake and he became quiet again.

Farisa expected Drake to become even happier. So, she was confused by his reaction. However, the group decided to leave him to his thoughts as they started walking. They couldn’t stay here for long as more demons would get attracted by the smell of the blood and corpses. So, the group walked together, making small talk and getting to know each other, as Drake mindlessly followed along.

A little while later, Drake recovered. He was contemplating many things, from what he’d do when he met Elwin, to whether he should tell him about Hazezel or not. Drake’s initial thought was to tell Elwin everything, however, he wasn’t sure if that would be the best thing to do.

If he did tell Elwin, there was no doubt in his mind that Elwin would grow to hate Hazezel. They would probably fight, and even if Elwin didn’t kill him, he would disown him. Moreover, the Myriad Sword Palace would kick him out for associating with the dark mages, and Hazezel would end up alone - if they didn’t severely punish or execute him for his crimes.

Not that he cared much about Hazezel’s welfare, but…

‘I can’t really explain it,’ he thought to himself.

For starters, he wanted to be there when Elwin confronted Hazezel, at least to support him, but he couldn’t do that until he visited the capital. On the other hand, he thought Elwin deserved to know the truth, and that keeping someone like Hazezel around, could put him and perhaps even the entire sect in danger at some point.

But, a tiny little part of him also hoped that maybe, just maybe, Hazezel had turned over a new leaf. That he regretted everything and hated himself for it. Not that that excused anything that he did, or that Drake would forgive him as a result, but, if that was the case, then he wasn’t sure if such a severe punishment would still be warranted.

Even being exiled by the sect might be okay, but if they began torturing Hazezel for information about the dark mages or executed him… Drake didn’t know if he wanted his brother to go through something like that, especially if he was trying to turn over a new leaf now.

‘I’ll make a trip to the capital one day, and make a decision personally then,’ he told himself and returned to the present.

The group was making their way through the plains in the night.

Drake noticed that Farisa was quite powerful, with her hammer being a rank three artifact. She was also a late stage, steel body martial artist, and had learnt powerful martial techniques as well. With her help, they were able to fight their way through the demons even faster. Now, even if they encountered a relatively large horde, they would cut through them in less than a minute.

Drake, who was running at the back, accelerated and caught up to Farisa who was at the front along with Blaze. “Didn’t you say Elwin was ranked fourth at your sect’s inner sect competition?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Then, where did you rank?” he asked curiously. From what he could tell, Farisa was almost as strong as Blaze, so she was most likely stronger than Elwin as well.

“Second place,” she said with a sigh.

“Really?” Drake asked surprised, subconsciously expecting her to have placed first. “Then, who was first?”

Farisa’s expression became serious, and she turned to face the front again and said softly, “A real monster.”

At the same time in another location, a young man sneezed.

“Achoo!”

He was wearing black and white leather armour, with a sword strapped on either side of his waist, while emitting peak steel body and late-stage warrior mage cultivation aura.

“Looks like someone is talking about you Corvus!” laughed another young man, standing next to him. He emitted an early-stage steel body and warrior mage cultivation aura. Both of them had the Myriad Sword Palace insignia inscribed into their clothing.

Corvus ignored the young man and focused on the distance. A group of over a hundred demons were rapidly approaching them. He unsheathed his swords and began activating his sword martial technique, making them glow with a brilliant white light.

He raised his swords and released his grip, but the swords kept floating in the air. As soon as Corvus released them, the two swords started rotating around each other and moving forward.

“Twin sword arts,” he whispered, “Twisting fury!”

Immediately, the swords began glowing even brighter and shot forward at an unbelievable speed. Not only that, but they summoned several arrays of swords to float around them, quickly multiplying to over a hundred swords. The swords flew into the air and rained down upon the horde of demons like falling stars from the night sky.

Within a few seconds, the entire horde of over a hundred servant class demons had died. Corvus smiled as his swords returned to his hands and he calmly sheathed them again as if nothing had happened.

The other young man looked at him and gulped. Despite travelling together with him, and growing up in the same sect as him, his power never failed to shock him. Moreover, he knew that Corvus hadn’t even used his full strength just now.

‘What a monster…’ he thought to himself.

Around an hour later, Drake’s party, with the new addition of Farisa, were getting close to the inheritance noted by Sylvia on her map.

“We’re getting close now,” she told everyone.

“Good,” Helen replied.

“I hope no one’s taken the inheritance already,” Blaze added.

As all the cultivators got closer to the black structure in the centre of the inheritance, it became more and more likely for them to run into each other. They had been fine so far, but pretty soon, they’d have to start fighting other cultivators over the inheritances.

Soon, an indistinct blur appeared on the horizon, barely visible in the dim moonlight. However, within a few seconds, they got closer and could see that it was a fully intact village ruins.

“Great, it seems like no one has-” just as Sylvia started speaking, the village walls started shaking and the buildings inside began collapsing one after another.

Drake’s party stopped just outside the village, waiting to see who had taken the inheritance.

A dark, hooded figure calmly walked out of the collapsing village.

They couldn’t see it clearly due to the darkness and its hood, however, everyone got a bad feeling.

The figure stopped as soon as it exited the village, as if surprised at seeing their group.

“Who are you?” Blaze asked warily, placing his hand on the hilt of his sword.

The figure chuckled in response and pulled back its hood. The red moonlight shone on the face of a man in his late twenties. “I didn’t expect to run into your group so soon.”

Dark mage!

Everyone sensed his aura and realised his identity at the same time. They took out their weapons and faced him warily.

Blaze pointed his huge sword at the man and spoke threateningly. “There are five of us and one of you. There’s no point in fighting. Just give up peacefully.”

The man chuckled again. “While that is true…” the man threw his hands up and dark mana gathered. Lights flew up from his hands one after another until over thirty lights filled the air. They all condensed into the figure of a vulture, and each one radiated the aura of a rank two spirit!

“-it still isn’t enough to defeat me!” the man finished.

Everyone froze in shock.