"Damn... This place its huge" Ruvan murmured in amazement as he observed a series of valleys interspersed between the vast mountain range.

"Now I understand why they call it the Desolate Mountain Range"

Most of the valleys and mountains in this place were completely deserted, with barely a bit of vegetation in sight.

A rather curious thing about this place is that there was a lot of fog surrounding the vast majority of valleys, which greatly hindered the panoramic view.

"You can see almost the entire mountain range from here, after all we are on one of the highest peaks" Said a middle-aged man as he pointed his finger towards the extensive network of mountains.

"Ohh"

"It's a relief to have your help as a guide, Mr. Greames," Ruvan said with a smile.

The guide only limited himself to smiling bitterly at Ruvan's comment.

Ruvan had previously threatened to cut off his head if he did not personally guide him through the Desolate Mountain Range.

This man's story was quite unfortunate. First of all he was not a guide but a merchant who frequented this route. It was yesterday morning that one of his friends had contacted him with the opportunity to do a small business…

According to his friend there was a young cultivator looking for a detailed map of the Desolate Mountain Range. According to his friend (the Old Man of the Inn) the boy was extremely rich.

Undoubtedly the opportunity to sell a map at a high price was there, so Mr. Greames, true to his instincts as a merchant, did not hesitate to accept his friend's suggestion.

What seemed to be an easy money for him ended up turning into a complete nightmare…

The first thing he encountered on his way to the inn was a young cultivator who was naturally cleaning the tip of his spear in the middle of the street. All this would have been a normal scene if not for the four slit-throated corpses lying on the ground.

"Perry!! What happened here?" The Old Man quickly asked the guy who was in charge of receiving customers at the inn.

"This..."

"These men came to claim to the Young Guest that his Snake had eaten their mounts during the night..."

"Things got a little heated and before I knew it the heads of these four men were already lying on the ground" The boy responded with a trembling voice, after all he was still shocked by the scene he had just witnessed.

"Jines, Wals, Hoffry" Mr. Greames muttered in disbelief as he recognized the heads lying on the ground... These guys were his subordinates. He had sent them to put the saddles away at the inn stable the night before they had returned from their business trip.

"Are you the boss of these idiots? Ruvan asked casually as he approached Mr. Geames step by step.

"That's right... I'm sorry if you were offended" Mr. Geames as a veteran businessman quickly pulled himself together while hiding in the depths of his being any kind of anger.

Mr. Geames had lived long enough to know that people like Ruvan would not hesitate to kill him.

The proof of this was his stupid subordinates.

"I'm sorry about your men but unfortunately they wanted to intimidate me" Ruvan said with a smile while remembering the intimidating attitude of the four beheaded bastards.

The four of them had come to look for Ruvan, after all Viridis had eaten his beasts while they were resting in the stable. Ruvan who was compressive offered to give compensation but fools perceived Ruvan's kindness as weakness…

Looking to get more benefits they began to intimidate Ruvan but unfortunately they tried to extort money from the wrong person.

"I'm sorry for what my men did... If the Young Master wants some kind of compensation just tell me"

"It's very kind of you to mention it first"

"I want you to personally guide me through the Desolate Mountain Range..."

"But..."

'Shit I have a business trip scheduled in three days...'

"Do you have something better to do?" Ruvan asked with a dangerous smile which sent a breath of cold air straight to the poor merchant's column.

"Not at all... It will be a pleasure to guide the Young Master"

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'And that's the reason why I'm in this damn place accompanying this bastard' Mr. Geames said to himself as he went over in his head the events that had led him to be in this place at this hour.

"Is the spiritual density here too low? Is this normal?" Ruvan asked as he perceived a too low level of spiritual energy within the Valley. The level was so low that it could be compared to what was on Marxus' Continent.

"No, this is not normal..."

"At least not in the rest of the Desolate Mountain Range"

"Explain yourself better"

"Sigh..."

"This is because of The Great Scar"

"The Great Scar?"

"That's right... The Great Scar is an extensive canyon that is located right in the center of the Desolate Mountain range..."

"And what does that canon have to do with the low amount of spiritual energy in this place?" Ruvan asked with a raised eyebrow after all he didn't see the relationship of one thing to the other.

"Rumors say that this Great Scar was the product of the attack of a powerful attack by an immortal expert..."

"Since then most of the spiritual energy of this place disappeared... That's why this place is as barren as you can see" Mr. Geames said while pointing towards the large number of dead trees in the place, it certainly looked like a desert wasteland devoid of all kinds of life.

'This is getting more and more curious...' Ruvan murmured to himself as they continued to make their way up the steep paths.

'The terrain is extremely complicated... Without a guide anyone could get lost, after all the fog in this place is too extensive'

"If this place is so bad why do you frequent it? As I read before, this place is full of multiple bands of bandits"" Ruvan asked curiously as he took one or another look at what seemed to be improvised caves on top of some mountains.

"It is true that this place is quite complicated to cross but it offers a great shortcut if one wants to trade with the Northern border cities" Said Mr. Greames while explaining a little about the economic and logistical savings that taking this route represented for merchants.

"So, you say you pay a right of passage to each of the bandits group to pass through their territories?"

"That's right... There are several Bandit Bosses lurking around the area... Depending on the path you take you will cross paths with some of them..."

"It is important to pay them a generous amount of spirit stones so that they guarantee us free passage through their territory. Although it is an expensive price it is worth it all"

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"Hey look!"

"What thing?"

"Down there you idiot!! Look at that snake."

"Whoaa! Hell, that beast must be a spiritual beast of at least level three"

"I know... Just imagine the price of that thing if we were to sell it"

"We have to tell the boss! I'm sure he'll be more than interested."

"Kukuku"

"Let's hurry up and go report"

"You go! I will follow them from afar, after all we cannot allow them to escape from our territory!"

"Okay! Make sure you don't lose them!!"

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