“He’s right,” a soft voice spoke out.
The person who spoke was Ray. He didn’t interfere in family matters and was trying to cultivate at the side, but this commotion awoke him.
“What do you mean master?” Drake asked respectfully.
“I can sense strange mana fluctuations from his throat. This strengthens when he is about to say certain things. If I am not mistaken, he is infected by a parasitic spirit that restricts him from talking about certain matters.”
“What?” Hazezel asked.
While most spirits required a continuous supply of mana from the mage to survive, there were some special types of spirits too – nature spirits used the world’s mana for sustenance, and parasitic spirits infected living beings and consumed their mana and life force for survival.
Hazezel didn’t know such a thing was possible. “Can you remove it?”
Ray thought about it for a while before shaking his head, “I’m afraid not. This spirit is very profound. I wouldn’t have sensed it even existed if it didn’t flare up just now. I think whoever cast this… must be at least a grand mage.”
As soon as he said this both Drake and Hazezel’s face fell. In the nearby villages, there was only one who was a grand mage and that was Myra of the Elven village. Did she have something to do with him? If she had cast a spell to stop him from talking about Astoria, didn’t that mean she was responsible for doing something to her?
“My master would never do such a thing,” Ray said displeased as if sensing their thoughts. Myra was his master, and he didn’t like them suspecting her.
Drake thought about it as well. Why would Myra want to harm Astoria? That didn’t make any sense. Could there be another grand mage involved?
The situation was rapidly becoming complex, and the two boys felt a headache. They had to inform their father.
Ray hesitated slightly before deciding to join them. They may want to consult him about the spell.
Holt was dumbfounded upon hearing this news. But he was helpless. He needed to find a way to break the spell to allow him to talk, but he didn’t know how to do that.
“What do you suggest Master Ray?” asked Holt.
“The only person who has a chance of breaking this spell is my master. You should invite her and ask her opinion,” he replied.
Holt nodded; he knew this as well but he would prefer to solve this problem himself if possible.
Since he had no other choice, he decided to send a message to the Elven village and could only hope that she would agree.
Since that was done, Ray turned back, leaving Holt, Hazezel, Drake, and Sam alone.
After Ray left, Hazezel finally asked Drake unable to contain his curiosity, “What was in that box?”
Drake smiled as he showed the contents to them. They were shocked!
“You, how did you get this?” Holt asked perplexed.
Sam smiled bitterly. He couldn’t talk about any matters related to Astoria so how could he explain to them how he got it? He simply shook his head and everyone else understood.
‘Astoria…’ thought Drake.
How are you involved in this matter? Did you help him get the recipe? But why would you do such a thing suddenly?
Don’t tell me!
Drake started sweating profusely.
What other reason could Astoria have to try and get this recipe so suddenly? She also wanted it to only be given to Drake first.
She had clearly gone to get the recipe for him!
If something happened to her, wouldn’t that then be his fault? Didn’t he inadvertently bring harm to his own sister?
Hazezel and Holt also had similar thoughts running through their minds and Hazezel spoke out, “Brother, no matter what happens it is not your fault.”
Drake could only smile bitterly but he couldn’t help but blame himself.
“Sam,” Holt spoke. “Though you cannot tell us any details about Astoria, you should at least be able to answer a yes or no question. Can you tell us if the last time you saw Astoria, she was alive?”
Sam nodded and everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
However, Sam’s throat started burning and he started screaming in pain as he fell to the floor. Everyone was stupefied.
If even such a simple response could create this extreme of a backlash, how could they ever get him to talk? What kind of a vicious spell was this?
They were all helpless and could only hope that Myra would come.
After a while, the pain ended, and Sam stood up shakily.
“Considering that you brought us such a precious gift and are also willing to endure such pain to answer questions about my daughter, I can only assume that you did not harm her. Tell me what do you want?” asked Holt.
Sam spoke immediately, “Someone precious to me was sold as a slave and arrived at this village. I currently have no money and nowhere to go, but I must first save them.”
Holt nodded.
He arranged for Sam’s lodging, gave him a sum of money, and had some people help him get information about his fiancé.
Sam was extremely grateful. This was his main goal.
Several days went by.
Everyone purposefully agreed to not spread word about them being in possession of the Zenith pill recipe for the time being.
The reason? They now needed Myra’s help.
If they revealed this information, then in exchange for her help she would demand the pill recipe too.
How could they give it so easily? Astoria had gone through great pains to get it; they can’t let Myra take advantage of the situation.
This was why Drake didn’t immediately reveal the contents of the box while Ray was around. Ray was an elf so if he found out, he would immediately inform Myra.
Finally, Myra arrived at Jain village and was seated together with Holt, Sam, Drake, Hazezel, Ray, and some attendants of Myra.
“He is possessed by a parasitic spirit. There must be dark mages involved,” she spoke. Normally, summoned spirits exist by feeding the mana of the summoner, but parasitic spirits can possess others and consume the host’s mana or even their life force to exist. They were commonly used by dark mages.
Dark mages were also mages and cultivated mana, however, their cultivation techniques were very dangerous and often involved killing and committing other evil acts to boost their own cultivation.
They were hated by everyone else.
Yet their cultivation methods would also yield the fastest results, allowing them to reach higher realms much quicker than normal cultivators. The allure of such power made many people risk being shunned by the world.
“Can you break it?” Holt nervously asked.
“It’s very risky,” Myra revealed honestly. “I have a twenty per cent chance of success. If I fail, the boy will die.” She spoke plainly. Sam’s face was aghast. Everyone looked at him. No one here would force him to cooperate, but he couldn’t just refuse. Everyone in this room was powerful, if he offended so many people at once, they could easily make his life in this village horrible.
But that was only secondary to him.
He thought about the times he spent together with Astoria. The two were united under the strangest of circumstances. They plotted together to bring the downfall of Henry and somehow succeeded. At the very end, Astoria sacrificed herself to save him.
Maybe she was only using him for her own goals the whole time, but Astoria had still undeniably helped him immensely throughout this process. At the end of the day, she still saved his life.
He was extremely grateful to her and really cared for her.
“I am willing to help,” he said. Everyone was relieved. “However, I must still first find my fiancé and save her. If she is alive, I will buy and release her, if she is dead, I still wish to know. After that, I will cooperate.”
No one complained. They were extremely happy with this arrangement.
“Very well, I will order more people to find her,” Holt replied.
Meanwhile, deep in the Beast Woods.
Elwin Reynard, Zhao Gaumond, Brain Klington. These were the people sent out by the Jain village. Out of the three, Zhao was the strongest at the perfect stage steel body, and Brain was at the middle stage steel body. However, despite his age, Elwin wasn’t far behind, and was at the early-stage steel body.
During the last month of the expedition, they often encountered many demons and onis, but they managed to fight them off. Zhao stuck very close to Elwin and protected him with all his might.
From Leon, Jin Tong stood out the most. Like Elwin, he was a once-in-a-generation genius of martial arts who wielded a spear. He was at the middle-stage steel body so was even more gifted than Elwin despite being the same age. Of course, this was also due to the help that Leon village martial artists got from the Zenith pills, which causes them to be able to cultivate slightly quicker. Along with Jin Tong was a muscular, burly man wielding a mace at the late-stage steel body, and a tall thin man who was also at the late-stage steel body, who fought with a sword.
Finally, the three elves from the elven village were quite mysterious. They were of a different race to humans and considered themselves to be superior. They hardly mixed with the humans on this trip. However, if there was a fight, everyone would cooperate. The elves were all Warrior mages and were also powerful archers at the early-stage steel body. They covered the rear and shot down enemies with incredible accuracy. Often, one of their well-timed bows and spells would change the tide of the battle and save many people. As a result, the rest didn’t mind their aloof attitudes and were still treating them nicely.
Elwin and Jin Tong took the front lines, closely protected by the veterans Zhao and the burly man respectively. The tall thin man, along with Brain stayed in the centre, protecting the elves at the rear from sneak attacks or from any enemies that broke through the front lines. This was the formation they had gotten into. Although they often suffered injuries, one of the elves knew healing magic so would heal them whenever they had a break, thereby constantly maintaining their strength.
They had slowly gotten past the areas with weak demons and now finally arrived at the place where more and more onis were around, along with groups of demons. The demons here, although they were still servant class, were often more powerful than the demons on the outskirts.
Now they were facing off against a pseudo-commander class elephant demon.
“Take this!” yelled Jin as he used a critical opening to stab at the elephant. It roared in pain and was going to counterattack but Elwin used this opportunity to slash at its knees. It immediately lost its balance, falling sideways onto the floor. At once a myriad of attacks was unleashed by everyone, completely killing it.
“What’s going on? In the last two days, we have fought six warrior class demons and now, a pseudo-commander class demon!” A warrior class demon had strength equal to a martial artist who cultivated up to the steel body or a warrior mage. However, everyone gathered here had at least cultivated an early-stage steel body and also had expert fighting skills, so they could easily tackle warrior class demons.
However, commander class demons were something else entirely. If they encountered one, they could only run away in despair. A pseudo-commander class demon was not a walk in the park either, however they could deal with it if it was only one or two.
The group was nearing the end of the region that had been mapped by the villages. After this region, till they reach their goal, they would have much less information as the path wasn’t mapped properly.
They were trying to avoid as many known territories of demons as possible but there were many more powerful demons running around than expected. These demons wouldn’t normally leave their lairs and since they were powerful, the villages had long since been keeping tabs on them.
But so many powerful demons were showing up one after another.
If a horde of these were to attack their villages…
After this fight, the whole team was exhausted, pushed to their limits. After finding a hiding spot, the healing mage tried his best to heal the most critical injuries possible before he collapsed out of exhaustion. They could only use physical methods to heal the rest to conserve strength. After a while of resting the group mostly recovered their strength and started moving.
If all went well, they could make it to their destination in half a day and finally start returning to their villages. Everyone had to constantly be on guard in this place which was mentally exhausting.
They were walking alertly when one of the elves called out.
“Careful! Several powerful demons are fighting a few hundred meters to the east.”
They used a bird-like spirit that was excellent at scouting.
“There is a total of four of them all fighting against each other. From this report, they all are pseudo-commander class demons.”
Everyone was dismayed. Just fighting one such demon was enough to almost break their group, but there were now four at once.
“We should take a detour,” said Elwin. “It’s too dangerous.”
No one argued, only a fool would go into such a dangerous situation. Everyone decided to pause while the elf investigated a route for them to take. After about half an hour, he had a general idea about the surrounding demons and told the group a route.
“That will extend our journey by another three days!” the burly man complained. The elf bitterly laughed.
“It is the only feasible route. In the east, the pseudo-commander class demons are fighting, and I am not sure how long it will be before they finish. Even afterwards, the scent of blood will draw other demons there, so it is not wise to use that route. To the west there lies a den of blood bats numbering in the thousands. Each of them is at least a powerful servant class demon, and many are warrior class too. Disturbing them is suicide. We can only retreat the way we came, go around the den of blood bats and circle back. That’s the only way.”
Everyone was hearing this helplessly. They wanted to leave this death trap as soon as possible but things didn’t often go the way they wanted.
“I agree with this plan,” Elwin finally spoke. It was better to be safe. There was no need to rush. They had enough supplies for a while, so another two days should be fine.
“Me too,” the tall and thin man spoke. He was the representative of the Leon village. After deciding on this, everyone finally resumed their journey.
…
Back in Jain village.
Sam was alone inside a room.
On his bed lay a beautiful girl, however, she was in an extremely sorry state. She was barely dressed, her clothes were ripped, her skin was torn and carried many bruises.
“Nala…” Sam held her hand as he started crying.
