As soon as the young mercenary's corpse was placed into the formation, the blood was pulled out and absorbed. His body shrivelled-up after. His youth and vigour were no more, and a dried-up body was all that remained. Then the body slowly decayed and disappeared piece by piece to the formation. The smell of blood and death also decreased after the corpse was consumed.

The formation was brightening up; it showed that it had accepted the body and blood but needed more to activate.

Marcus then took the young mercenary's head and threw it into the formation with no respect. In fact, there was contempt in his eyes for the young mercenary. Marcus, at this point, had blamed all the misfortune on the young mercenary. He showed no respect to his corpse.

This was because of two reasons.

One, the reason all three of them came into the cave was due to the young mercenary's persuasion to see the revitalizing grass.

Two, the greed he showed by demanding extra payment for the boy, which was the possible reason for the two's deaths, as Marcus believed.

The formation similarly absorbed the head, but it was not enough for it to activate.

The gluttonous formation wanted more.

While Marcus was delivering his comrades to the formation, Hunter still had a confused look on his face.

The Duke finally gave in to his curiosity, "I guess you want to know why I told Marcus not to reveal my name."

Hunter had a timid smile and nodded.

The Duke said, "The noble are all smart and would immediately question my motive of selling the revitalizing grass if they knew it was me."

"If they do not know my identity, it would give them something to investigate and prevent most of them to question our motives. This will also buy us more time."

"Plus now any noble that could get their hands on the revitalizing grass would use it to forge a connection to the royals. This anomaly would not go unnoticed on their minds. Thus, we need something to occupy their mind and to stop them from thinking. By hiding our identity, it will make them redirect their focus. This would be clear misdirection, and this distraction would buy us time to have a safe journey back."

Hunter's forte was not scheming and the complex politics of the nobles, so he nodded, at the same time it worried him.

Seeing the worried face, Duke White once again looked at Hunter and asked, "What is it? You do not need to be too formal in front of me, Hunter? If there is a problem with our plan do tell. It would benefit us both. Although we could get away from any problem, if they try to block us, our strength would be exposed and it would not be good to either of us."

Hunter replied, "Duke, I do not think any noble would believe that another noble is willing to want to sell the revitalizing grass now. So I do not think they will believe in the auction's legitimacy."

Duke nodded, "You are right in the long run, this strategy would fail, but for a temporary delay, it would work."

"Hunter, you fail to realize that the unknown gives rise to a lot of speculation, and the speculation leads to doubt and rumours. Plus you know once people make rumours, they tend to defend it. All of this confusion will buy us time."

Hunter understood the Duke's plan and knew that he had a better understanding of people and their reactions. He was also worried for a different reason.  He noticed that the Duke's mannerism and energy resembled a demonic cultivator. He also knows that smart demonic cultivators could become a catastrophe for everyone.

He thought to himself, "I hope I am wrong, and he did not cultivate that demonic art that we found.."

Sigh,

He had noticed some changes with Duke White, but he did not want to confront him, at least not now because that would make him face a very challenging problem.

On one side would be his leader and on the other side all of his beliefs and teaching against demonic cultivators.

He did not want to choose a side, and thus, he just delayed it.

After the Duke finished giving his explanation to Hunter, the formation had finished absorbing the young mercenary.

Marcus was reluctantly pulling his friends' body, and he hoped that the formation would activate because he was hoping to have his head for a funeral.

He was actually resistant to feed this friend's corpse to the formation. He had justified feeding the young mercenary as he was the cause of all this misfortune. However, he could not justify harming his generic-looking friend's corpse. Especially now that the harm was happening by his hand.

As mercenaries, there is a special bond between their members. This bond forms between them because they rely on each other during many battles, and their life and death closely relate to their brothers around them. This creates a sense of camaraderie and brotherhood between the members. This inexplainable bond could be described as a sense of understanding and reliance.

He had not formed this connection with the young mercenary as he was a recent addition to the team. However, that was not the case for his other team member, who was his longtime friend.

Marcus was now slowly taking steps that would trample on his deeply rooted belief of comradery and reliance. This made his mentality and mindset very fragile, and this made him doubt himself, but he nonetheless continued on this path.

Marcus thought that he was doing this for his family, he was thinking of ways to protect and compensate his friend's family. But deep down in his heart, he knew that he had crossed his bottom line and stamped on his beliefs. But what can anyone do in front of power?

Marcus continued to take steps with his friend's corpse and a small teardrop formed in the corner of his eyes. The revolting smell did not bother him this time.

This emotional turmoil created a small change in his mentality. A few minutes ago, he had the heart to give his life for the survival of his friends and comrades. This was honourable and a deep belief and trait among the mercenary. Marcus had now lost his honour.

Crossing his bottom line many times had given birth to a selfish desire of greed for life and survival. This evil seed was born deep in his soul. Making him prone to cowardly acts and a calling to sacrifice any one of his beliefs and things for his survival and comfort. He had broken apart his remaining connection and qualification to be a mercenary.

His mentality had undergone a slight change, but it had not fully transformed him yet. He wanted to give his friend at a burial, even if it was just his head.  At the same time, the newly found cowardice deep in soul made him think of a possibility if the formation did not activate. The only body that could be used to supply it with blood and flesh would be his body, and he did not want that to happen.

His cowardly hope was answered, the formation activated once the body of his second comrade was absorbed by it.

The selfish desires of Marcus did not go unnoticed by Duke White and a grin formed around his mouth. The Duke did not need people with restriction and beliefs that could hinder him from using them. Seeing that Marcus had broken down and his loyalty to the mercenaries had crumbled, made Duke White elated.

He knew that from this moment onwards, Marcus had no one to rely on, and his sense of guilt and shame would prevent him from joining the mercenaries. He now had a loyal subordinate that would do anything for him, and all he had to do was feed his selfish desires and create enough incentive for him to stay.

Duke White had created an incentive for him. On one side was fear of being alone without his protection and on the other, possible gains that he would obtain from following him. This carrot and stick strategy had fully worked on Marcus.

At this time, the dark soul had concentrated on his sense, and he had gotten to know everything.

He thought to himself that Duke White was indeed to his liking.

He sighed and mentally said, "We could have been such excellent friends, if only we were not in the current circumstance." He knew that Duke White greed for his body's constitution, that would allow for better usage of light element.

The dark soul had by now analyzed his situation. He concluded that this situation was not too bad, his life was not in danger. In fact, now that Duke White had put so much effort in sealing his body, he would ensure his safety.

So he sighed and looked at the formation that started to glow. He got ready to act in pain once it starts because based on what he knew, these formations can be extremely painful.