Drake met their gaze.
“Only Theo,” he said calmly. “We wanted to kill the other dark mages and capture Theo, before exchanging him for Helen with their grand mage.”
“Even though you know how powerful he is? You had the chance to kill him but you didn’t? Despite what he did to Jordon?”
“Yes,” Drake replied. He paused for a second then added, “Wouldn’t you have done the same for one of your own?”
“You!”
Ivan was furious. Jordon’s death was almost entirely due to Theo, and they had let him go despite having had a perfect opportunity to kill him. Not only that, but they never planned on killing Theo in the first place! But had misled them into thinking that they did.
Maybe he would have done the same for his own sect disciples, but Ivan didn’t care about that now. He was feeling so angry, and he wanted some form of justice.
“AHHH!” Ivan screamed and unsheathed his sword. Drake narrowed his eyes and the rest of his party also became serious. Ivan was about to charge when Kurt pulled on his shoulder to hold him back.
“Stop! What are you doing?! Let me go!” Ivan protested, Kurt just sighed. Following Kurt, a few other Silver Crane Sect disciples also pulled Ivan and took him away.
After they left, Kurt turned to face Drake’s party again before speaking slowly.
“I understand why you did what you did,” he said, looking them in the eye. “It’s just a shame that we missed an opportunity to kill that man, Theo,” Kurt then looked in Ivan’s direction before adding, “Ivan will also come around… eventually.”
“I hope so, and we’re sorry about your loss,” Farisa sighed. She sounded very sincere. “We wanted to capture only Theo while killing all of his dark mage companions. If only things had gone according to plan, we could have still dealt a huge blow to the dark mages. But it’s too bad that the dark grand mage had to show up so suddenly…”
“Agreed,” Kurt replied, turning back. “However, it may be a good idea for us to go our separate ways now.”
“Really-!?” Farisa gasped, but a second later, she realised it might also be for the best. They both needed some space to process the loss of their party member.
Besides, the main reason they teamed up was to deal with the dark mages. Now that that was done, there was no longer any need to work together.
“Very well, in that case, it has been a pleasure to work with you,” Farisa replied after a few seconds.
“Indeed, thanks for your help and sorry for your loss,” Blaze added.
“Thank you too,” Kurt replied.
Drake also said his goodbye while Sylvia just nodded. After that, the Silver Crane Sect disciples began walking away.
With a sigh, Drake and the rest of his party sat down. They decided to recuperate for some more time before leaving.
Blaze, Drake, and Farisa began meditating to recover their mana. However, Sylvia just stared blankly at the ground for a moment. Her mind was filled with images of Helen and all the time they spent together. An overwhelming sense of loss and grief filled her heart.
She had never felt such intense emotions before and didn’t know how to deal with it. However, she recalled the image of a young man with red hair wielding a sword and chains. Remembering him made her blood boil.
She clenched her fist and muttered to herself.
“Theo… I will not let you get away with this…”
Ten minutes later, the party recovered as much strength as they could and stood up.
“Let’s get going,” Sylvia spoke in a monotone voice, her face blank.
Unlike Blaze who would often visibly become enraged, Drake knew Sylvia liked to keep her emotions to herself. Although Helen’s death weighed deeply on everyone, seeing Sylvia in this state was disheartening. With a sigh, he tried to change the topic.
“Where are we going now?” he asked.
She glanced at him and paused for a second before replying.
“The herb garden.”
Two hours later.
The sun was high in the sky and an enormous dust storm covered the landscape. A group of four were dashing through the inheritance grounds.
If one looked a few kilometres away in the direction they were running, they would notice a large enclosure. It was different to all the village ruins they had encountered so far, with the walls made completely out of stone. Several groups had entered the building already, and they were faced with a huge space.
At the centre was a large, flowery archway connected to a long, wooden fence stretching on either side. The fence formed a rectangle, at the other end of which, was another flowery archway. These acted as gateways to a land of herbs.
Numerous rare and ancient herbs were growing within the rectangular enclosure, filling the room with an unbelievably dense, magical and spiritual aroma.
However, there was one feature which stood out above the rest.
A massive tree was growing right in the centre of all the herbs, giving off a mystical and white radiance. Everyone who caught a glimpse of it instantly paused, eyes wide open, recognising it immediately.
It was the Celestial Willow!
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A little while later.
Drake’s party noticed large stone walls appearing in the distance. It was difficult for Drake to make out any details due to the dust storm, however, Sylvia confirmed that it was indeed the herb garden. Hearing this, the party moved forward rapidly and reached its gates within a few minutes.
As always, the moment Drake walked in, the first thing he noticed was the temperature change. While the outside was burning hot due to the blazing sun, the inside was at a pleasant, cool temperature.
However, the next thing that stood out to Drake was the thick medicinal aroma in the air. Drake looked forward and noticed a large flowery archway and a long fence, enclosing an area filled with all manner of rare and ancient herbs which had been growing for hundreds of years.
For most herbs, the longer they grew, the greater their effects would be. A herb could be grown for ten years, and its effects would be vastly inferior to the exact same herb grown for a hundred, or a thousand years. Most higher-ranked pills often required herbs to have been aged for a certain number of years minimum.
The herbs growing in this garden were several centuries old, at least. Hence, there were all radiating a dense, magical aura.
However, there was one thing which caught Drake’s attention more than everything else. That was the large tree growing right in the middle of the herb garden. It was completely white and reached dozens of metres tall. Hundreds of branches grew out of the tree from which beautiful white leaves blossomed. The whole tree glowed while radiating an aura of magnificence, making Drake and his party gawk in awe at its mere sight.
It… really is here!
Drake was overjoyed. For a moment, all worries left his mind, for he had found the one thing he had been searching for, since the time he left the Jain village.
The Celestial Willow!
With this, he could finally restore his mana core and become a mage again!
If he could, Drake would run up to the tree and take it all for himself immediately. However, fate wasn’t so kind.
Drake looked to his right and saw two groups of people.
The first was a group of six, one of whom he recognised very well, Cyrus Blackthorne - they were the Blackthorne family! Drake hadn’t seen any of them after splitting up with Cyrus, but they happened to have found their way here.
Drake then glanced at the second group of people but they weren’t wearing the clothing of any known sect or family.
‘They must be lone cultivators,’ he thought.
Finally, Drake turned to his left and his face turned dark.
Four individuals wore black robes and stood as a group – dark mages!
Two were radiating the aura of a late stage warrior mage, while the other two gave off the aura of a late stage steel body martial artist,
Drake immediately raised his right hand and poured mana into his glove. Over ten fireballs appeared around him and instantly shot towards the dark mages.
Seeing this, two of the dark mages chuckled and raised their hands.
“Poison Ivy!”
A black, thorny plant appeared next to the dark mage. The plant quickly multiplied and expanded its roots to form a large shield, covering him and the dark mage behind.
“Miasma wisp!”
The second dark mage summoned what looked like a round and spiky blob made of gas. The edge of each spike protruding from its body carried a hole, from which a dense, black fog spilled out. The fog gathered together in clumps and solidified, quickly forming another shield which similarly covered the dark mage and the final mage behind him.
The fog summoned by the miasma spirit was made of corrosive poison. The moment the fireballs touched it, they disintegrated.
At the same time, the fireballs that made contact with the poison ivy exploded and disappeared, but the shield remained firm.
Within a few seconds, the dark mages managed to successfully defend themselves against Drake’s solar barrage.
The dark mages chuckled again and undid their spells, leaving the spirits floating by their side. All four of them looked at Drake’s party mockingly.
“Tst,” Drake spat and took a step forward. However, the moment his foot was about to touch the ground, a huge alarm bell went off in his mind. Drake quickly pulled his leg back just as a large spear of mana blasted out of the ground and into the air.
Cold sweat trickled down his back.
‘That could have taken out my leg!’
One of the lone cultivators spoke out at this moment. “The ground is covered with traps, so we can’t move very easily.”
Drake glanced at him and noticed a slight grin on his face, as well as the lone cultivators accompanying him.
‘The bastards didn’t tell me before on purpose…’ he realised.
Drake scoffed at the lone cultivators before turning back towards the herb garden and the dark mages, wondering how to get the inheritance while defeating the dark mages.
At this point, Farisa finally spoke up.
“Everyone, the dark mages are powerful and dangerous. We cannot let them get the inheritance. Let’s work together to defeat them first!”
Surprisingly, one of the dark mages responded first.
“Don’t be fooled!” the dark mage with the poison ivy spirit spoke up, facing the lone cultivators. “She is from the Myriad Sword Palace and the other group is from the Blackthorne family. As lone cultivators, they are more likely to work with each other than any of you. If you help them defeat us, how do you know they won’t turn against yo-”
The dark mage sensed danger and immediately willed his spirit to move. The spirit moved the shield to the side just as an arrow crashed into it, leaving a small crack. Sylvia relaxed her arm and cursed.
The lone cultivators glanced at each other hesitatingly, while the other dark mage who had summoned the miasma wisp continued.
“There are ten of you and four of us. If we work together, we can easily beat them and take the inheritance for ourselves.”
“Don’t listen to them!” Blaze spoke up. His deep voice, large figure, and distinctive horns made him imposing. “You cannot trust dark mages. They are known for their deceitful nature. Work with us and we promise to give you all an equal share of the inheritance.”
Drake and the others nodded as if to confirm his promise. The lone cultivators glanced at the Blackthorne family.
“We agree as well,” one of them said, and the rest nodded in confirmation.
There were ten lone cultivators. If they worked with the four dark mages, they would have Drake’s party and the Blackthorne family outnumbered, leaving them in a difficult situation. Hence, they absolutely could not allow the lone cultivators to side with the dark mages.
The lone cultivators thought for a bit and came to a silent agreement.
One of the lone cultivators reached into his storage pouch and took out a rod-shaped artifact. He faced the dark mages and bashed the rod into the ground while pouring mana into it.
“Spike charge!”
The ground in front of the rod burst out into a tall and deadly spike. The spike floated out and hovered next to the lone mage before charging at the dark mages.
“Damn it!” the dark mage cursed and brought his poison ivy shield to block, just as the earth spike crashed into him. Given that it was already weakened from Drake and Sylvia’s attacks, a large crack formed on his shield.
“Fine, if that’s how you want to play, then take this – thorn blast!” the dark mage willed and the poison ivy spirit released all of its thorns. The hundreds of thorns blasted towards the lone cultivators who quickly took out their artifacts and summoned spirits to defend themselves.
“Decimate!” Sylvia's voice echoed as Drake felt a powerful wind sweep past him.
The dark mages felt immense danger and acted immediately. While the first two dark mages used their poison ivy shield and miasma shield, the remaining two dark mages who were martial artists, pulled out a bell and disk artifact, before pouring mana into it. The first summoned a projection of a large bell which covered all of them, while the second summoned a large mana shield.
BOOOM!
The powerful mana arrow crashed against their defences. The mana shield and bell projection were broken immediately, causing the dark mages to suffer a backlash. However, this caused the mana arrow to weaken considerably, becoming much smaller.
It then shot through the miasma shield. The moment it made contact, it began eroding and decreasing in size. A few seconds later, the arrow broke through the shield, but it was just normal-sized now.
Finally, the poison ivy shield blocked the arrow’s path. This time, the mana arrow could not break through so easily. The dark mage bit his lips as he poured all his mana into the shield. A few seconds later, the arrow exploded, releasing a small dust cloud, causing all the dark mages to cough.