Allen felt familiar with the trees they had passed. It was like the path back to Shadowperk City.

“Aren’t we heading to Coffin Sect’s main base?”

“Yes, and that base is near Shadowperk City. You must be familiar with the river path of your hometown.”

“Yes, if you follow it, it will lead you to a dangerous valley. Don’t tell me?”

“Yes, that’s our sect’s territory. If you don’t chant secret code when you enter the valley, you will be attacked by sect’s zombie soldiers.”

“I had no idea.”

The carriage entered Shadowperk City’s gate. Allen sat on the edge of the seat. He didn’t have a friend here, but the buildings sure brought back old memories.

“I heard this is your hometown. Do you want to visit any relative?”

“Forget it, I don’t have one.”

“Oh, so where’s your home?”

Allen looked at the alley between each building and smiled. He didn’t have to sleep in that kind of place anymore.

“Hey, Allen, do you hear me?”

“Ah, sorry, I used to live in the orphanage.”

As they were chatting, the carriage followed the river. Eventually, they left from the opposite gate that led to the valley.

Near the valley, the mist thickened. Silhouettes approached them; they groaned. Eren started to chant the code and they disappeared.

“They were a zombie. There’s another way to our sect’s base too. It’s passing down the mountain and going straight to the valley. The base is located on a certain cliff. There.”

Eren pointed at the silhouette of the building not far from them. They followed a pathway that seemed to lead to there.

They arrived at a big mansion. Two maids approached them.

“Hold on, disciples. State your business! Why did the two of you leave encampments?”

Eren and Allen got off of the carriage and greeted them.

“Greetings, we are here from encampment five. We need to report something important to elders.”

Eren revealed an insignia to them. Since he had the same one, Allen did the same thing.

“Okay, you can enter.”

They entered the mansion and went to the corridor that led to the meeting room. Eren explained the purpose of their visit to the guards. They waited a bit before one of the guards came back with two girls.

“Mircalla,” Allen greeted with a smile. The others around him squinted when he said that. He knelt and fixed his greeting, “Master.”

Mircalla coughed and ruffled his hair. “You can rise, My Vassal.”

“M—Master!” On Allen’s side, Eren greeted his master. He seemed to be scared. His body trembled.

“Why don’t you kneel like Cally’s servant? You ungrateful slave,” said the woman who wore a light-green dress. Her long, wavy hair had the same color as her dress.

“This servant will….” Eren didn’t only kneel, he prostrated.

“Jean, you don’t have to be rough to your servant,” Mircalla advised.

The woman called Jean hugged Mircalla and said, “Ah, I am sorry for this unsightly sight.” She faced Eren again and still talked with a cold voice, “You can stand. I have heard about your purpose to come here. Where’s the letter from your eldest brother?”

Eren stood and gave her a letter.

“You follow me in,” Jean ordered.

“Come on, Allen. You too.”

Mircalla pulled his wrist. Because Allen was afraid of how the people thought when they saw them like this, he pulled his hand from her grip.

Mircalla looked at him in wonder, but she didn’t say anything and got inside of the room.

Allen followed her. She gestured him to stand behind her while she sat. Reymond winked at him. He gave him a thumb down.

“You, aren’t you from Shadowperk City too?” the man who had narrow-shaped head asked. He sat beside Mircalla.

Allen’s eyes widened when he saw him. He was the lord magus who came to his hometown.

Allen cupped his fist and greeted, “Greetings, lord magus.”

Doortrick laughed out loud. “You changed so much. Who would think that a person with ordinary spirit roots could match people with talent in terms of cultivation speed?”

Doortrick drew people’s attention when he said that. Suddenly, Mircalla glared at him. “Can you shut up for a bit? Don’t disturb my servant.”

Doortrick smiled at her. “As you wish, countess. As you wish. Now, I can guess how your servant has a rapid increase in level.”

“Silence!” The sect leader, Lord Stargazer, knocked on the table. “I have urgent news. Elder Karnstein’s servant and Elder Sweetfish's servant can come here.”

Elder Jean pushed Eren to walk to sect leader. Allen looked at Mircalla; she nodded. He approached the sect leader too.

“I have read the letter from Grimfield. Are you sure you haven’t been followed?”

Eren knelt. “I am sure, my lord. I was appointed as a messenger because of my stealth magic.”

“You can relax. I am not trying to blame both of you or anything. But, let me see just to be sure.”

Sect leader’s X-shaped helm produced dark glow. It was as though scanning both of them. Suddenly, a light cube appeared behind each of their back.

“This is the technique of Johan Ashker, one of the current seven favored. You two have been followed.”

Suddenly the cubes exploded, blinding the entire room. When the sight became normal again, a man was floating in the air. His figure was seen through.

The man bowed. “Greetings, cursed heathens! I see your tiny sect is serious to challenge our Church of Enlightenment! How did we find out, you say? Because we are enlightened beings, you fool!” The man put a twisted smile on his face and laughed out loud.

“Let me see. There’s the branch of Kuhuan Clan, Wicked Idol Sect, Black Scripture Sect, etc. What the hell? Aren’t all of you the low tier sects that have a grudge with our church? And… what’s this? Myriad Essence School?”

The man frowned. “You people are helping them?”

Doortrick replied, “Well, of course, you made an enemy with my countess.”

“Wait until archbishop heard this. By the way, an army of hundreds of executioner is on the way here. Of course, I, Johan Ashker, lead them.”

Johan lifted a dead body, which was recognized by Allen and a member of the sect. “This guy is tough. Isn’t he the eldest brother of your sect?”

“El Grimfield!” Eren exclaimed.

“This guy is cunning. First, he pretended to make a hunting quest near the border of the core area to lure us to the den of black goblins. He has succeeded. He was killed by them, though. Well, in the end, it was all in vain. However, isn’t that within your calculation to sacrifice your disciples to export your zombie soldiers to your main base?”

“You have been informed well, young lad,” the sect leader praised. “Now, I am curious if there’s a rat amongst us?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. We don’t ally with evil, nor do we tolerate them. Though, I can offer all of you a chance. I, personally, don’t care about all of you. If you surrender and agree to be baptized into our religion, we will spare you. How’s that sound?”

Doortrick giggled. “Oh, amusing, we have done with the travel to the Nether Necropolis. We gained so much. Of course, we did make a promise to help this sect to fight your church, but what’s your condition, Lord Ashker?”

Johan nodded. “As expected of an elder from Myriad Essence School. Very wise, indeed. Our executioner is strong as a group; even we had wiped the black goblins. I just want one thing!”

Johan pointed at Mircalla. “Give me that vampire! I will kill her personally!”

A powerful aura erupted. It was from Mircalla. There was bloody mana surrounding her.

“Johan Ashker! You killed my citizens. But, on top of that, you killed my mother and hung her head in the middle of my territory! I don’t care about your status in the church, but I swear I will chop your body into a thousand pieces and feed it to my dog!”

“Oho, that’s scary, countess! However, your fate is decided by them! What say you, Elder Doortrick, Stargazer?”

Mr. Doortrick chuckled. “Hahaha, you are really funny, lad. You are just the weakest favored. You can’t even beat people of the higher realm without your subordinates. There’s no way you can compare to our countess.”

“So that’s your answer, elder. How about you, Stargazer?”

“I have enmity to the church, to begin with.”

“So, this is war. Don’t even regret this, you—”

A crescent slash flew to Johan’s neck, severing the connection between them. The source of the attack was Mircalla.

Mircalla bowed. “I am sorry. I just can’t stand him.”

“We understand,” the sect leader said.

Suddenly, the guard barged in without permission. His breath was rough. He sweated a lot.

“Sect leader, we have been informed that an army of the church has come to Shadowperk City. They are slaughtering the citizens. It’s a matter of time before they reach here.”

“No!” Vanilla, who stood behind Doortrick, cried. Ren comforted her.

Allen just realized they were here too. He looked up to their levels. It was the same with him. He smiled out of satisfaction. Their spiritual roots are better than me. Yet, my cultivation speed is comparable to them. As expected of mana absorption technique from the Ancient Beast of Death.

As for his feeling about his hometown, he cared about it. However, he strangely didn’t feel sad at all. Even, Reymond was in shock when he heard that.

“Feeling sad, huh,” Allen whispered to himself.

Ren who was hugging Vanilla looked at his master and begged, “Master, can you permit me to go? I am worried about my family.”

“Give up, Ren. I sympathized with you. However, you are the last of your family. Your ancestor was my friend too. I promised to protect your family.”

“Then—”

“Then you must hold up and be patient. Remember, we came here to make you stronger by traveling to the Necropolis.”

Doortrick looked at the sect master. “Lord Stargazer, we, the senior, have visited the necropolis and secured the relatively safe way for our junior’s chance. I think it’s time for them to go. They don’t have any use when facing the extermination army of the church anyway.”

“Alright. Your disciples can go. Elder Karnstein, you act as their guardian. You are the strongest favored.”

Mircalla stood up. “No, sect leader, you have promised to me. I had helped you to complete it.”

“It’s up to you, Karnstein. I said this for your own good too. Inside the necropolis, you can find a suitable legacy. You can get stronger. Besides, if you go to the war, you will sacrifice your servants. I know you care a lot for them. If you don’t have anything to say, those who have cultivation higher than the mana condensation realm will follow me to fight the church as per agreement.

“Don’t worry, this isn’t the final war at all. But, we have to be victorious facing one of the military forces of the church.

“Those who are still in mana condensation realm will follow Elder Karnstein to the entrance of the Nether Necropolis.”