Chapter 2723 - 148-156

Chapter 148 - Entering The Forest

"Since we are all roughly around the same level, no one should have a problem with the loot being equally distributed after we sell it, right?"

Everyone nodded in agreement with equal distribution. It was only fair since they were cooperating together.

However, Leon's doubts were strengthened. As a 4th step Awakener, it wasn't strange if the team leader wanted to take a bigger portion of the loot. Everyone still agree since there were only 3rd step Awakeners.

In the eyes of the others, he was also a 3rd step Awakener after suppressing the energy fluctuation of his cultivation. Unless it was star ranker or stronger, they would not be able to gauge his strength easily.

"Mm, no problem." Leon was last to agree.

"That's good." Elias nodded, before doing a brief sweep of everyone's backpack. "It doesn't seem like anyone needs to stock up on supply… except…" Elias continued, before pausing on Leon's flimsy bag. "Is that everything you're bringing…?"

"Yes, I have everything I need here." Leon responded indifferently as he patted his slim bag.

Most of his necessities was stored in the Worldspace. He only brought the bag for appearance sake. It would be too strange to enter the forest empty handed otherwise.

"Fair enough. Just don't drag us down." Elias left it as is, before announcing, "Since we are all prepared, let's move out."

The team soon arrived at the forest entrance.

The forest was walled off with a set of tall black wooden gate as the entrance. The high wooden walls were used to prevent the mist from flooding into the town. Leon could feel the tremendous amount of yin energy coming from the forest.

As Blackwillow Town was built upon the deforested region of the Extreme Misty Forest, it wasn't strange for the mist to flood the town, if the walls weren't there to prevent it.

"With this amount of yin energy, it would be the ideal place for practicing cold attribute or ghost cultivation." Leon quietly mused. He wagered if he brought his two girls here to train, their cultivation speed would increase drastically.

But of course, they had to train with moderation when it comes to yin energy. If they don't properly filter out the negative and impure elements, it could lead to energy deviation and corruption of the minds.

Leon wouldn't be surprise, if he encounters ghouls and vengeful spirits in this sort of environment.

Even in the Divine Realm, a concentrate region of yin energy like this was very rare. Thus, while it was a perilous land to others, it was a blessed land of cultivation in Leon's eyes, except the benefits wasn't for him to enjoy.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Elena asked.

"It's nothing." Leon shook his head and stood behind the team leader. He glanced at the large black gate in passing.

Several teams began to gather in front of the closed gate, which was guarded some town guards. There was a fixed time when the gate opens and closes, if people wanted to use this section to enter the forest.

The 1-mile safe boundary was just a figurative term. It didn't mean it was absolutely safe zone. This was especial true at night, as the 1-mile safe boundary no longer exists at night.

The night is filled with unknown dangers and the drop in temperature makes the environment unfriendly.

Extended exposure to the forest environment was harmful to the living, unless they have ways to ward off the negative and impure elements from infiltrating their bodies.

A tense atmosphere surrounded the teams as they waited for the opening of the gate.

"Did you know-?"

"No, I don't know if you don't tell me." Leon immediately cut her off.

Elena stomped the ground grumpily and pouted, "It was a figure of speech! Mou! As I was saying, did you know that--"

"No, I don't know." Leon cut her off again. He smiled with amusement and jokingly said, "Why do people say that when they have something to say? Can't they just get straight to the point?"

"Ahh~! I'm so frustrated~! I want to kill you!" With her claw-like hands up, she wanted to pounce on Leon for a bite.

Garry appeared behind her and held her back. "Hahaha, let's not get violent here. We're a team now." He tried to calm her down with a laugh. A shade of redness soon appeared on his face as he wasn't used to having contact with the opposite sex despite his big build.

"Hahaha, Garry is blushing!" Nina pointed.

"N-No, I'm not." Garry denied in a panic, releasing his hold on Elena.

Regaining her freedom, Elena just stared at Leon with a puffed face. "I just wanted to say Blackwood Town got its name due to naturally phenomenon of the chopped ironwood turning black in this misty environment! Humph humph!"

She was just trying to lighten the mood. Was this fella trying to frustrate her to death?

"That's general knowledge that everyone should have already known, no?" Leon smiled.

"You had the look of someone who didn't!"

"Can't a guy look around curiously when it's his first time here?" Leon shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

"…"

Pft** There was a moment of silence before Elena broke into bouts of laughter. The others smiled, while Garry scratched his head awkwardly. He had taken Elena's previous words seriously.

Jeremiah: "…"

Nevertheless, the previous tenseness was dispelled.

Creak**

The large gates soon began to open, as the local authority made an announcement.

"The gate will now be opening. Just a friendly reminder that the gate will not open after 6PM. If you return later than the stipulated time, then we can only wish you good luck in surviving the night inside the forest. Happy hunting."

"Let's go." Elias stated.

Leon's team began to enter the forest after the teams ahead of time. The moment they step foot inside, they felt the rush of coldness. But as the team had come prepared, this bit of coldness was enough to faze them.

"I won't say too much since everyone should be aware of the dangers of the forest before coming. Don't wonder too far off from each other. It's easy to get lost in this mist and keep an eye out for ghouls." Elias instructed sternly.

As Leon anticipated, there were ghouls in the forest. Ghouls were divided into two types; the undead ghouls and the mutated ghouls.

Undead ghouls are birthed from corpses of humans after the vengeful spirits occupy their empty vessels, while mutated ghouls were humans with weak minds that allowed vengeful spirits to invade their mind and take possession of it.

After searching the peripheries of the forest without much luck, Elias suddenly declared, "There isn't any ghouls and precious herbs near the entrance. We will head to the 900-yard area to hunt.

"Eh? Isn't that too fast and dangerous? Elena said with misgivings. The others also expressed their doubts. They were going to jump straight into the deep end?

"Don't worry, I have entered the forest many times. The dangers are still manageable with our current battle strength. As long as we don't leave the safe boundary, nothing should go wrong." Elias comforted.

"Well… alright then."

Hunting ghouls wasn't a rare occurrence in Blackwillow Town. There were two different merchant branches in Rainwallow City that offers good prices for the yin cores found inside undead ghouls and fresh bodies of the mutated ghouls due to their strong vitality blood.

No one knew the exact purposes of these two items, but since there was a buyer with good price, who wouldn't be tempted to go hunt some ghouls?

It was also the most stable source of income for hunters and adventurers in the Extreme Misty Forest. Precious herbs were harder to find in the safe boundary. One had to venture beyond to find some.

As the group advanced towards the 500-yard mark, they encountered their first ghoul. It had the appearance of a fairly young man, when he was alive. It had its eyes rolled back, pale blue complexion, sharp black nails and carried a horrible stench.

"It's an undead ghoul, be careful." Elias warned dutifully and drew his steel sword, while the rest drew their ironwood weapons. Apart from Jeremiah using dual daggers, the rest had swords.

"Huh?" Nina noticed Leon's empty hands. "You didn't bring any weapon with you?"

"I have this." Leon displayed his needles briefly before hiding them again under the dumbfound looks of the others.

Such a small needle, what can he kill with it?

In the meantime, Elias had already charged forward and lopped off the ghoul's head.

"Stay focused." Elias said sternly, before requesting cover, "Watch my back." He proceeded to cut open the ghoul's head, but found nothing unfortunately. "Tch, it's a bust. This ghoul was still young. No wonder it was so weak."

"Let's continue to head deeper."

The sun hung in the peak of the day. They had plenty of time to hunt. Yin cores would usually form after a week and comes in different grades. Thus, it was easy to gauge the age of an undead ghoul.

"Alright."

The team agreed after seeing how easily their team leader handled the ghoul.

"The ghoul didn't have a yin core, but couldn't it have been a mutated ghoul?" Nina asked. "Its blood would have been worth something."

"Mutated ghouls have rosy red complexions due to their blood vitality. That one was clearly an undead." Elias explained.

"Oh."

The team soon walked past the 700-yard mark. Initially, there were about 1000 people that entered at the same time. Even when they couldn't see the other teams due to the poor visibility, they would at least hear them. But here, they could only longer hear anyone except themselves. The teams must have spread quite far apart.

Leon quietly observed his team. Only the team leader and the quiet Jeremiah was vigilant. The rest followed blindly. Leon shook his head at this sight. They were too carefree.

With the poor visibility, it was easy for a ghoul to sneak up on them. Coincidentally, something happened as he thought that.

"Ahh!" Nina screamed as she defended against an undead ghoul with her sword. It had pounced at her from out of nowhere. Luckily, she reacted quickly, however struggled to push the ghoul back. Its foul stench assailed her nostril and made her complexion paled. "Help me!"

"Careful, this is a level 3 ghoul!" Elias warned. Another ghoul pounced at him as he was prepared to help Nina. "Shit, there's another level 3! Someone else help her!"

Leon reacted quickly, shooting two needles into its eyes and brains, before retrieving it at lightning speed. No one knew what he did. Elena only saw his hands blurred.

His attack didn't kill the ghoul, but it did cause it to back off. Jeremiah, who was the closest took the opportunity to lop off its head. Elias finished his own prey shortly after.

As they dug out the yin core in their heads, Leon stood next to the shaken Nina and tapped her on the shoulder. "You alright?"

Nina jumped in fright, but she soon calmed down and nodded.

"This is not a bad start. 2 grade-3 yin cores. Let's continue." Elias said in a good mood.

His flaws were beginning to show.

Chapter 149 - End Of The Safe Boundary

The team was hit a wave of uneasiness. Elena and Garry approached Nina after the other and expressed their concerns. Jeremiah was a man of few words, but his soft gaze accounts enough. Only the team leader was concerned with gaining more Yin Cores.

Having learnt her lesson, Nina relaxed expression was replaced with stern vigilance, reacting to the slightest of sounds. The others followed suit and advanced with guarded stance. Getting injured by an undead ghoul was no laughing matter.

"The undead ghouls carry lethal corpse poison in their claws and teeth, with no cure." Walking ahead, Elias informed them, before heartlessly stating, "If you get afflicted. I'm sorry but you are as good as dead and will be left behind."

When the team heard this, pressure suffused the surrounding as coldness filled their hearts. They gripped their weapons with heightened vigilance. No one want to be left alone in this forest. Unless they have heaven-defying luck, chances of survival were close to nil.

Only Leon remained unperturbed. Corpse poison was nothing to him. Furthermore, people could just remove the afflicted part of their flesh decisively to avoid the corpse poison from rotting the rest of their body.

The ventured deeper into the forest with a heavy mood.

750 yards… 775 yards… 800 yards. Leon nonchalantly glanced at the markings on the trees that indicated their distance as they went.

Along the way, they encountered 1 Level-2 Undead Ghouls and 2 Level-3 Undead Ghouls, gaining another 2 Grade-3 and 1 Grade-2 Yin Cores for the team.

"Hahaha, this is really not bad. 4 Grade-3 and 1 Grade-2 Yin Cores in an hour worth of hunt. That's 140,000 Craws."

Elias laughed heartily. The team also wore smiles on their faces. 140,000 Craws was not a small sum of money. Even Leon was taken aback by the rich payouts for these Yin Cores.

Grade-1 Yin Cores were worth 10,000 Craws and successive grade higher was an increment of 10,000 Craws. Thus, a Grade-6 Yin Core would be worth 60,000 Craws. But considering the strongest Awakener in Blackwillow Town were 5th step Awakeners, a Level-6 Undead Ghoul would wipe everyone out.

"We've already encountered 5 undead ghouls, yet not a single mutated ghoul."

Elena wondered why they haven't encountered any thus far. The value of a fresh mutate ghoul body was even more exaggerated. the fresh blood vitality of a Level-1 Mutated Ghoul was worth a whopping 100,000 Craws.

"Mutated ghouls are much rarer than undead ghouls. Mutated ghouls require much more stringent conditions to be created."

Elias continued to answer all questions asked like a walking encyclopedia.

"Team leader, since you are so experienced and knowledgeable of the forest, how come you don't have your own specialized team?"

Once that question was asked, the others also pricked their ears to listen in as well. Everyone was curious and suspicious towards that point. Elias became gloomy and cold at once. "Don't ask questions you shouldn't."

"Oh… sorry, team leader. That was insensitive of me." Elena immediately apologized. Perhaps, she poked at his sore spot. "It's getting a bit isn't it? Hehehe…" She tried to change the subject.

They were after all in one of the Human Domain's few Perilous Lands. Experienced and knowledgeable as someone may be, they cannot predict the future. Elena figured the team leader used to have a team, but they suffered a mishap and got wiped out.

Strangely after venturing another 100 yards deeper and reaching the 900-yard mark, they did not encounter another ghoul along the way.

"This is strange. Did our luck already run out? Why isn't there anymore ghouls?" Nina commented. It was eerily quiet.

AHHHHH~!

Suddenly, a scream came from not too far ahead, causing the team to pause their steps in alert. "It seems one of the other teams that went ahead of us had encountered trouble. We will go in a different direction."

The team leader's statement took everyone by surprise. "We aren't going to help them?" Nina asked doubtfully. Wasn't that too cold?

"No." Elias said sternly. "The number one thing you should all be careful of in the forest is not ghouls but humans! You can help them, but they may not feel grateful. In fact, they may even try to kill you, if you have treasures on you."

There were also other problems. Such a loud sound would naturally attract attentions. If they head to the source and find themselves outnumbered by ghouls, things could get dangerous. It was best to avoid the problem. Not helping others, was helping themselves.

"How is that possible? We are all humans. We should be helping each other."

Elias shook his head and said, "There's no limits to human greed. This is the Extreme Misty Forest. No law governs this place. As long people can get away with it, all kinds of wickedness can be conducted here. I've seen it too many times. Teams hunting other teams for their treasures, even team mates killings each other to claim sole possession of the spoils. You all should throw away your kindness. Being kind to others here, is to be cruel to yourself."

Everyone began to look at the team leader in a new light. Whatever doubts they had regarding the team leader's intentions for recruiting was washed away.

"Team leader, you picked us because you knew we would be easy prey for others, right? You were looking after us, right?"

"Don't get me wrong. If any of you get afflicted with corpse poison, I will not hesitate to kick you out of the team to fend for yourself."

His response came off cold, but he did not deny anything. The team took it as the team leader's tacit admittance.

The team leader said not to trust humans, but Leon could see everyone's trust in the team leader. He inwardly shook his head and remained silent. 'Let's see what you're playing at.'

He already noticed that while Elias mentioned many things, he did not mention anything about the tree markings. Perhaps it was general knowledge so he didn't see the need to, but by the looks of the team members, it doesn't seem like their noticed the tree markings. Leon would have also missed the markings if not for his good eyes.

The team continued to hunt along the 900-yard mark. Over the next 3 hours, they were able to gain another 5 Grade-2, 7 Grade-3 and even 1 Grade-4 Yin Core. Their harvest tallied to a grand total of 490,000 Craws.

Half a million! That amount was enough to set a commoner for life, if they live frugally. However, after dividing the money equally, each member would only end up with a bit over 80,000 Craws.

"Hm? It seems the mist is started to get a bit thick around here. Should we head back, team leader?" Garry suddenly suggested.

"It shouldn't be a problem. There's still another 3 hours before the gate closing time. We should make use of this time since we are currently hunting quite well."

No one disagreed. Since the team leader said there's no problem, why would they miss out on the chance to make more money? Another half an hour passes by, before people finally began to notice something was wrong.

Leon shook his head and quietly tagged along. Although it seemed like they were hunting along the 900-yard boundary, this was a misconception by the thickening mist. They had been heading straight for the 1-mile boundary the whole time.

He had noticed the problem when he longer saw the tree markings and had to mentally calculate the distance. By now, they should be around the 1700-yard boundary, about 60 yards from the 1-mile boundary.

"We've been encountering more and more ghouls. Also, the mist is getting way too thick to see anything! I can't even tell left from right anymore. Can we start returning?"

Once Nina spoke these words, there others started chiming in. "We hunted enough. We shouldn't be too greedy." They were more self-conscious. They already hunted 1,300,000 Craws worth of yin cores.

More ghouls meant more money, but also greater danger. No matter how important money was, it wasn't as important as their life.

There were hints of exhaustion in their tones and few beads of sweat on their faces, despite the coldness of the environment.

"Let's go then." Elias nodded without a single sweat. He couldn't go against the entire team's wishes. He began leading them back. Elena and the rest were about to follow suit when Leon placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Hm? What's the matter, Leo?"

Leon smiled coldly at Elias, before answering her question, "I wouldn't go that way if I were you."

"Why?"

Elena and the rest were puzzled, while Elias had small change in expression before it was hidden by his smile. "Is there a problem with my lead, Leo?"

"Problem? Hahaha… There is a big problem." Leon responded with a chuckle. "Why are you trying to lead everyone beyond the safe boundary?"

What!

Everyone was shocked by Leon's accusation and turn to Elias with a questioning gaze.

"What do you mean by those words, Leo? Have I not treated you well, for you to slander me so?" Elias said unhappily.

"That's right. The team leader has been good to us." Nina defended, but she still gave Leon to explain himself based on her good impression of him.

However, he didn't spare Nina one glance. His sight was fixed on Elias. He had been contemplating this whole time.

If Elias just wanted sole possession of the spoil, he could just quietly kill everyone off with his strength. There was no need to lead them all the way to 1-mile boundary. Thus, therein lies the first problem. It shouldn't be about the spoils.

Then came the second problem. They hunted this whole time, but they had not seen even the shadows of a mutated ghoul. Mutated ghouls were rare, but not to the point of nonexistence. They should have already encountered a few by now, but they did not.

The next problem was everyone's stamina. With the harsh conditions of the environment, everyone burns more energy and tire out more quickly when they have been fighting this entire time. It was natural for him not to break a sweat as a practitioner at the 9th layer Body Tempering Realm, but it was strange for Elias not to break a sweat when everyone else already did.

After summing up all the problems, it brought him back to the main point, which was also the first doubtful point. Why did Elias only recruit first-timers? What was his real motive?

Chapter 150 - Rearing Mutated Ghouls?

The team looked at Leon with different kinds of gazes. There were doubts, concerns, hostile and even apathetic gazes. He gazes a sideward glance at Nina, who directed the hostile gaze at him.

It appeared that she had developed a favorable impression of the team leader and didn't take kindly to his accusation. Leon was trying to save their lives, but he seems to be the villain in their eyes.

In spite of their various gazes and pressure, Leon remained unperturbed and steady like a mountain. "First, let's clear up the area a bit." He said in a placid tone.

"What do you mean-?"

8th step flames gathered towards his fingers in a concentrated manner. The team members were surprised by his small reveal of strength. "What are you doing, Leo? Are you going to attack us!?"

The team took defensive stances. "We just asking what your reason for accusing the leader was."

They misunderstood his intentions, but it did not matter. He snapped his fingers and the flames billowed out in all directions like air rushing out of a popped balloon.

His flames had like a mind of its own and blew past them without harming anyone. The mist within a 30-yard radius of them had been swept away and they vision became crystal clear. A few ghouls in the area were caught and burnt to a crisp. Apart from Elias, the rest was shaken by his strength, while the mist slowly began to fill the empty area shortly after.

"You're at the 8th step!"

Leon ignored the comment with a calm expression, neither admitting nor denying the claim. He found himself a nice piece of rock to seat himself on, before he proceeding to explain, "We're already at the 1700-yard mark. If you follow the team leader in that direction for another 60 yards, you'll be leaving the safe boundary. I have been counting since we passed the 900-yard marker."

What!

"Impossible! We should still be at the 900-yard region. How can we be at 1700 yards?" Nina quickly denied.

"You couldn't even tell your directions in the mist. How can you be so sure we still are? If you weren't listening, I said I've been counting." Leon was speechless. They had gotten along well at the start, but now, he could only see her as an ignorant lovestruck fool.

"The team leader hasn't been hasn't been fully honest with us all. There are distance markers on the trees, which are important and extremely useful for keep track of our location, but team leader didn't seem to mention this. I wonder why, hmm?"

The team immediately shifted their gaze to the team leader for answers, while Jeremiah directly went up to a nearby tree to check.

"Don't bother looking. I haven't seen anymore distance markers after the 900-yard mark."

Jeremiah did not seem to hear and continued to scan the tree up close. "No, there were markings. It was just erased." Jeremiah spoke rarely, as he rubbed a certain section of the tree that did not seem much different other parts, but upon closer inspection, it had a slightly different shade and texture.

"So, it's true… What's your purpose for doing this, team leader?"

As Garry spoke, all eyes were trained on Elias. The team leader was silent for a brief moment before breaking out into cold laughter.

"I didn't expect someone to have such keen perception to notice such tiny detail. I hadn't anticipated that someone as strong as you would hide your cultivation. Why don't you guess what my goal was?" Elias squinted Leon.

"Since you only targeted us first-timers, you must have been aiming for people with weak minds because people with weak minds are easier for vengeful spirits to invade and become mutate ghouls. So, your true purpose must be to lead us to where the vengeful spirits and have us become mutated ghouls, right?" Leon said with a steady voice. "Besides, I wasn't the only one hiding my cultivation, no?"

"Bravo. Great inference. You are very correct. That was precisely goal." Elias clapped with a cold smile. "Unfortunately, There's no prize."

As he finished his words, his peak 9th step strength was revealed, along with its pressure bearing on the team members.

"P-Peak 9th step Awakener…" Elena exclaimed and felt weak in the knees. Everyone was shocked by the revelation.

"Since everyone has found out, I will give you all two choices. Enter the deep forest or die."

Once the words were spoken, everyone began to despair. Both choices were undesirable. One was death, and the other wasn't much different to death. However, they had to pick one of the two. To them, 9th step Awakeners were the strongest under the Transcendent Realm and held absolute reign over their life and death.

"I-I don't want to enter the deep forest! Please spare me, I will do anything you want!" Nina crawled over to Elias and clung to his attire pleadingly.

Nina's beauty wasn't on the same level as Aria and Rachel, but it was enough for her to be called pretty by most. If someone like her offered to sell her body, many men would be tempted.

However, Elias glanced down at her pleading self and remained unmoved. "Since you aren't willing to enter the deep forest, you can go die." His hand reached for her head and grabbed it.

Leon's expression turned serious and reacted immediately as he sensed something. His needles were shot at lightning speed, forcibly interrupted Elias from killing Nina to dodge the needles.

The stone cracked under Leon's powerful stomp as he lunges straight at Elias. "You are a demonic cultivator!"

Surprised by Leon's speed, Elias tossed Nina straight at Leon to stop his charge, while retreating backwards. "Demonic cultivator? The fuck is that?"

"Nooo~! Save me~! I'm going to die!" Nina screamed in horror. She flew with great force. If Leon evade her, she would smash headfirst into the rock behind him. Even if it doesn't kill her, it would be great enough to severely injure her into a vegetative state.

Leon caught her with the [Flowing Stream Technique], spinning three revolutions to cancel out the momentum before tossing her safely to the side. She landed on her rear with a thump. "Ouch!"

That is not how men are supposed to treat women! Nina was grieved briefly, before being relieve for still being alive.

"All of you should run away. Blackwillow Town is back in that direction!" Leon pointed. "You can take this with you as well." He retrieved his needle along with Elias's bag with metal manipulation, before tossing the bag to Elena.

Surprised, Elena caught the bag with contained all the spoils of their hunt. "What about you?"

"I will be fine."

"Okay."

The team began to flee without any disagreement. A 9th step Awakener was far beyond what they can handle with their capabilities. They wouldn't be able to help even if they stayed and would only be a burden instead.

Elias did not try to stop them from fleeing with his bag. He didn't really care for that bit of money. His eyes were focused solely on Leon with a heavy expression. "Metal manipulation… you are from the Crawford royal family!"

"You're not wrong, but since you know blood manipulation, you should also know metal manipulation isn't something absolutely unique to the Crawford royal family but based on aptitude." Leon's expression was noticeably colder.

After finding out the other party was a blood-user, it made perfect sense, why they other party want to turn people into mutated ghouls. They were rearing mutated ghouls for their own blood cultivation!

The others hadn't fled very far. They were startled by Elias's claim and Leon's admittance. They glanced back with complicated expressions filled with hesitation.

A royal member! The prince! They were all citizens of the Crawford Kingdom. Would they be charged for abandoning his highness after learning his identity? "Go!" Leon's roar swept away their hesitation as they gritted their teeth with determination and fled.

The two traded blows immediately after the others were gone. Elias was very careful and only attacked Leon probingly from a distance.

Elias was wary of Leon's explosive speed. It was too strange when he can only sense 7th step power from the other person. Was the person still hiding his strength?

"The Crawford royalties aren't as ignorant as I thought. Since you know about blood manipulation, you should also know about our great Bloodfiend Sect." Elias said as he blocked a few needles with a [Blood Wall].

The [Blood Wall] was constructed from his own blood and could become hard as iron under his manipulation. After successfully blocking the needles, the blood forming the [Blood Wall] collapsed and merged into his steel sword, becoming a big Bloodsword.

'Bloodfiend Sect? There was a whole sect of these blood-users? It seems they had to push forward some projects, once he returns to the Capital.' Leon inwardly frowned, but his surface expression remained calm like still water. "That's right. I wonder if you are alone here?"

Leon continued his cycle of firing and retrieving his needles. Leon continued to exert the strength of an 8th step Awakener, while Elias deflected his needles with his Bloodsword.

Hearing Leon's careful questioning, Elias regained some confidence. "That's right! But since you are going to die anyway. It won't hurt to let you know that my sect members have already spread throughout the Crawford Kingdom."

He began to attack more aggressively, forcing Leon into close combat. Leon looked at him like he was looking at a fool. Getting information from this person was as easy as taking candy from a child. There was no effort at all!

"I see. Then you can go die!" Leon said coldly. The black spear materialized in his hand and made a horizontal sweep with the force of a 1-Star Awakener under his threefold strength.

"What!"

Eliass's eyes almost popped out of his sockets as he blocked the blow with his Bloodsword. He felt like he was hit by a truck as the tremendous force sent him smashing into a tree. His organs churned, but did not suffer too much damage. Blood-users had strong body and vitality.

"Dammit! You tricked me! You are a 1-Star Awakener!" Elias began to turn tail and run. A 1-Star Awakener was out of his league.

"Die!" Leon tossed his black spear with great strength. Elias, who had his back to Leon, was unable to dodge such a fast spear. It teared through his heart, making his face pale at once.

Leon knew destroying his heart wasn't enough to kill him. He quickly caught up and retrieve his spear for another shot, but for the head.

"Arghhh! You've forced me to used this!" Elias cried in pain, before roaring, "Blood Explosion!"

His body exploded into haze of bloodmist and forced Leon to retreat and erect a fire wall to shield himself. He began suspicious when no force hit his fire wall.

Looking at the blood-littered ground, Leon frowned in thought.

"Did he just self-destruct? Or…?"

Chapter 151 - Beyond The Boundary

Leon wasn't very familiar with blood cultivation. He only knew it was one of the most detested demonic cultivation methods in the Divine Realm. Although, he would like to believe there were no evil technique and only evil people, it's hard to defend against the animosity everyone had for blood cultivation.

This is because every blood cultivator chooses the diabolic path of extracting and refining the blood of others rather than the orthodox path of refining and strengthening their own blood.

The diabolic path allows swift progression of cultivation, but every time they extract the blood, they also extract the grievance and resentment of the host along with it, which slowly start to influence the minds of the blood cultivators and transform them into mindless fiends that only knew how crave more blood and power, a bloodfiend.

"I didn't expect blood cultivators would have such a trick up their sleeve. If I hadn't wish to test the vitality of a blood cultivator again, I would have just gone straight for the head." Shaking his head, Leon mused.

To say he wasn't interested in the blood cultivation method, he would be lying. Being able to survive a ruptured heart was akin to a second life. "I think I understand how they can survive. Blood cultivators are like the masters of blood, they can continue their own blood circulation even without their heart. But such feat should be very taxing on their minds." Leon continued to ponder.

Once blood circulation stops, they would undoubtably die like anyone else. However, he wouldn't be surprise if they are able to repair their own hearts. It was much easier to patch up the holes with their own blood than to personally drive the circulation of their blood.

Seeing how much Elias treasured his life, choosing to escape when he couldn't win, Leon believe a person like that would not self-destruct. Most likely what just happened was the result of some sort of blood evasion technique.

Coming to that conclusion, Leon did not bother to give chase and search for a dead man. Looking at the blood splattered ground, there was a great price to pay for the execution of such a high-level evasion technique. He refused to believe that the person can still survive with a punctured heart after such a huge loss of blood.

"Time to explore the deeper parts of the forest." With a deep breath, Leon's eyes glowered with anticipation. The freedom and excitement of venturing into the unknown. What would the deeper part of the forest have in store for him?

He flicked out a fire beam with his fingers and dispersed the mist blocking his path to the end of the safe boundary. The fire beam disappeared into the thick mist beyond the boundary like a drop in the ocean.

Undoubtably, the dangers on the other side would be much greater, but Leon tread forward fearlessly.

After crossing the boundary, his vision had turned completely white due to the density of the mist. He could immediately sense the harmful effects of the yin energy concentrated in the area, as well as the presence of vengeful spirits in the area being drawn to him.

"Ueeekkk!"

A layer of flames erupted from his body and warded off the harmful mist. The vengeful spirits issued shrill cries and backed away like they had just seen the bane of their existence.

Leon took steady steps deeper into the forest, unaffected by the presence of the vengeful spirits. As long as he had his flames, the vengeful spirits would not attack him. He calmly surveyed the surroundings as he went.

20 yards in, he discovered the first rare yin-attribute herb, a Frozenleaf Grass. It wasn't what he needed, but since he found it, he will take it. There could be useful in the future.

"However, this herb… requires the special biome of the Extreme Misty Forest, otherwise it will quickly die. I won't be able to store it in the Worldspace…" Leon creased his brows in thought. "Unless…"

His eyes quickly lit up as he glanced around. "Unless, I create miniature biome of the Extreme Misty Forest in the Worldspace. There's lots of empty plots in the grey zone I could use."

Having settled his thoughts, he did not harvest the Frozenleaf Grass just yet. He entered the Worldspace and enclosed an empty plot of soil in 5 by 5 by 5 yards of ice, which took half an hour to complete.

"This size should be good enough for now. I can just expand it in the future when the situation calls for it."

Exiting the Worldspace, Leon materialized the Book of Life and began channeling the yin-energy filled mist into the hollow ice cube he constructed inside the Worldspace inside the heavenly treasure. The Book of Life swallowed the energy voraciously like an insatiable god.

"Truly worthy of a Heavenly Treasure." Leon's face involuntarily twitched. The Book of Life's ability to draw in the energy greatly outstripped his own ability to absorb energy from the heaven and earth. "Wait a minute!"

Leon's eyes widened in realization. "If I use the Book of Life to absorb the energy from heaven and earth, before entering the Worldspace to cultivate, I could achieve twice the result with half the effort."

Once the thought entered his mind, Leon had the urge to leave the forest right away to test his theory. However, he forcefully suppressed the urge and shook his head. "Finding the herbs for the Soul Enhancing Pill and Soul Mending Pill is equally important. It can wait after I finish my business here."

After completing the miniature biome, Leon planted the Frozenleaf Grass inside and watched it for two hours. "No signs of deterioration. Great! It works!"

His efforts were not in vain. Leon smiled with satisfaction. "Continue!"

Exiting the Worldspace, darkness entered his sight and coldness seeped straight into his bones and soul, making him involuntarily shiver. Night had arrived. The howls and screams of many vengeful spirits could be heard in his immediate surroundings.

Leon was greatly startled and quickly constructed a new layer of flames to ward everything off. "I didn't expect this degree of coldness to affect me." Leon frowned. He was at the 9th layer of the Body Tempering Realm. It was equivalent to 9th step elemental resistance.

"This degree of change in night and day is so great. No wonder the forest is off-limits at night. However, it is still manageable for me." Surveying the surrounding, Leon felt a bit creeped out from sensing thousands of vengeful spirits eyeing him from the darkness.

"If someone said this place was a part of the Underworld, King Yama and Hades might agree." He comically thought, before continuing his venture.

50 yards deeper, he encountered the first mutated ghoul. "Is this really a ghoul? Such rosy red complexion. It looks more like some mad cultivator suffering from energy deviation."

"Rahhh!" The mutated ghoul charged at him under the veil of darkness and mist. Leon stood out like a torch in the darkness. He couldn't see them, but they could see him. He relied on his other senses to detect his surroundings.

"A Level-5 Mutated Ghoul, huh?" Leon was a bit surprised. A Level-5 Mutate Ghoul with the physical strength off a 6th step Awakner. He caught ghoul's claw attack and crushed its wrist. "Urahh!" The ghoul screamed.

"It seems it can still feel pained." Leon determined. A Level-5 Mutated Ghoul was nothing to him. He toyed with the ghoul by tearing all its limbs apart to further his investigation, before killing it by decapitation. He soon crouched over the body and inspected its blood.

"Such strong blood vitality! No wonder the blood cultivator tried to rear these mutated ghouls. They are practically heavenly tonics to them." Leon frowned. "It's a bit impure, but if I refine it, I can create longevity blood from it.

Leon's eyes glowed with gold as he thought about the possible profits he could earn. Longevity blood was a mystical elixir capable of replenishing lifespan. "Even if I sell it at an exorbitant price, I'm sure the nobles will still be more than happy to bleed out their coffers for it."

Life did not have a fixed value. To be able to buy longevity blood was akin to buying life. Of course, the nobles would buy it at all cost. To earn the noble's favor while solving the royal family's money problem. This was killing two birds with one stone.

He hadn't expected such enormous gains on such a short trip. His luck definitely wasn't this great before. Leon attributed everything to the karmic virtue he accumulated.

"If I accumulate enough karmic virtue, wouldn't I become invincible?" Leon thought, before shaking his head. It would be an impossible amount, if he had to factor in fate and destiny.

For example, if a person was fated to die young, he would need to change his destiny to overcome his fate and to change his destiny, a ridiculous amount of karmic virtue was needed. Of course, this was all just mere speculation on his part. No one really knows how the Fate, Destiny and Karma Laws works.

Leon reentered the Worldspace once more and drained all the blood into a tub from the Mutated Ghoul's dismembered corpse. He had to refine the blood while it is still fresh or it would be wasted.

After he finished draining, he threw the corpse outside, and collected all the supplementary herbs. They weren't necessarily required, but with the supplementary herbs, they efficacy of the longevity blood would be stronger and it would not dry up after extended periods of storage. The main ingredient was the strong vitality in the blood.

He soon became to purify the blood vitality with his flames. The roughly 5 liters of began to reduce in volume, but in exchange, it glowed with a stronger crimson light. In the end, he was left with 1 liter of purified blood vitality.

He flipped out pill cauldron, refined the supplementary herbs and threw everything into the cauldron. Half an hour later, 10 bottles of longevity blood laid out in front of him. He took a whiff of the longevity blood and nodded in approval.

"Each bottle of longevity blood will be able to replenish 3 years of lifespan."

"I could have used rare herbs and increased the efficacy to 5 years, but if I did that, how would I be able to maximize my profits? Kekeke." Leon mused evilly.

Oh, how he had fallen in this mortal world.

Chapter 152 - Too Dangerous To Stay

Leon stored away the bottles of longevity blood and exited the Worldspace.

"Oh? What do we have here?"

Leon himself surrounded by mutated ghouls. "It seems these ghouls were attracted by the traces of ghoul blood left behind." He really couldn't see these ghouls the same way, when he can refine longevity blood from them.

"Unfortunately, I don't have enough bottles for all of you. I guess I will just kill a few and incapacitated the rest. It will be a waste of resource to kill more than necessary." He mused in the middle of 20 mutated ghouls, ranging between level 5 to level 7.

With flames coating his body, he charged into the fray with his black spear and pierced the heads of 4 Level-5 Mutated Ghouls and 1 Level-7 Mutated Ghoul. His killing blow was clean and swift, minimizing the loss of blood. He grabbed their bodies, before disappearing into the Worldspace.

"???"

The rest of the mutate ghouls were like disorderly pack of disabled lambs cluelessly wriggling and squirming about on the ground after losing their targets. 3 hours later, Leon returned with 40 bottles of 3-Year Longevity Blood and 10 5-Year Longevity Blood richer.

3-Year Longevity Blood to sell and 5-Year Longevity Blood to gift to his in-laws who took the flawed Awakening Pills before. His mother might also need one since she may have taken some before, she married into the royal family.

Leon quickly left the mutated ghoul infested area. He did not need to kill anymore. Wherever he went to search for herbs, the vengeful spirits would give way and stare at him venomously in fear of his flames. It may have just been his imagination, but the deeper he went, the more intelligent the vengeful spirits he encountered seemed to be.

Pshh** "Reeeee..." A daring spirit attacked him, only to get vaporized into nihility by the flames. It issued a screeching cry before every last traces of its existence were erased.

"Not as intelligent as I thought... but definitely more aggressive." Leon scrunched his brows in thought. "Although, I would like to uncover the secrets of this place, I should just settle for the herbs."

The unnatural amount of yin energy in the Extreme Misty Forest had piqued his interest, but it was not worth it to lose his life over it. The ghouls and spirits were getting stronger, the deeper he went. He was starting to feel a sense of unease and apprehension from the forest. He was becoming dangerous for him.

"I probably shouldn't proceed any further beyond this point. It seems my current cultivation is inefficient to fully explore this place and I sense a very powerful entity lurking deeper inside. strong to the point of making my hair stand on end." Leon seriously contemplated. "As expected of a Perilous Land."

Leon was 500 yards deep beyond the safe boundary. If he calculated the distance he had traversed, starting from the entry point of the Blackwillow Town, it would be no more than 5000 yards into the forest.

5000 yards was just the tip of the iceberg for a great forest like the Extreme Misty Forest that stretches 500 miles north, all the way to the Boundless Sea. This was also only the width of the forest. The north of the Human Domain was almost completely occupied by Extreme Misty Forest.

It was just a bit shy of being connected to three kingdoms; the Crawford Kingdom, Durham Kingdom and the far eastern Geyser Kingdom. Such length was in the thousands of miles. Perhaps, it was possible for a Transcendent to lose their life in this place.

…

While Leon continued his search for precious herbs, Elena and the rest had long returned to Blackwillow Town.

Both Primrose Merchant Association and Lucretius Merchant Association had a small branch in Blackwillow Town. The Primrose Merchant Association branch was the place, where hunters and adventurers visit to sell their yin cores, while the other merchant branch was where they sell their blood vitality.

After Elena and her group had sold their loot, before gathering inside of a private room in one of the town's inn.

"How should we split this money?" Jeremiah asked abruptly, from one corner of the dark room.

Over at the candle-lit table, the others frowned upon hearing his words. "Don't you think your question is inappropriate? There's more important things to be concerned about." Nina said with displeasure.

"You are not in any position to lecture me. I don't hail from a noble family like you three. I won't be able to help Leo even if I want to. Thus, I might as well just take my share and leave. I also have my own problems to settle." Jeremiah said coolly.

"How can you be so selfish?" Elena said.

"Selfish? I'm just making the most logical choice to survive. Did you really think someone from the royal family would really be in a place like this by himself without any guards? Let's take a step and think about what they said before. Metal manipulation isn't unique to the Crawford royal family. This means there could be other metal-users outside the kingdom.

What if that person was actually a foreign metal-user that was just borrowing the status of the royal family to scare that person off? Perhaps, you have forgotten, but he was also a 7th step fire-user. Maybe his metal manipulation was just a trick to fool the other party. You have to remember that the other party was a 9th step Awakener!" Jeremiah coldly explained.

The others were immediately startled. His words made a lot of sense. That's right! Perhaps, Leo did it in order to save them!

"That still doesn't change the fact that we have to save him!" Nina strongly interjected.

The others looked at her weirdly. First, she fancied the team leader, now it switched to Leo. She was like a stalk of grass that sways wherever the wind blows. No, that's not correct. It should be said that she was like a grasshopper that likes to hop.

Their weird gazes made Nina blush. "Don't misunderstand! Such a young 8th step Awakener should have a very strong background. He could be from the Duke's faction. I-I think we should report to the Queen."

"That's an extremely stupid idea. Forget about whether or not a baron family like yours can request an audience with the Queen, you would only be pushing Leo into a fire pit even if you could. Don't forget, posing as royalty is a serious offense. Even worse, if he truly can manipulate metal, the royal family would hunt him down. Back then, if the Queen hadn't married into royal family, she would have been executed. The Crawford royal family would not allow an outsider to manipulate metal in their kingdom."

Hearing Jeremiah's cold words, Nina froze. Awakening the metal attribute was akin to challenging the Crawford's rule apparently. How come they didn't know that? Wasn't metal attribute unique to the Crawford royal family? Remembering the exchange between Leo and the ex-team leader, it seems to be true that others could have it.

"Then what should we do?" Nina asked helplessly. Unexpectedly, they began valuing Jeremiah's opinion. He was the quietest among them, but he was now the sharpest, being able to see further than them.

"That's why I said I can't do anything. Just take the money and leave. If Leo managed to survive, I will find a way to repay him in the future."

"…"

Jeremiah's words weren't meant to be demoralizing, but it was a truth. The group felt helpless. They weren't obligated to help Leo, since they only knew each other for less than a day, but they weren't ungrateful bastards. Leo saved their lives. They owe him a debt of gratitude. Pity, they were too useless to be of help.

After a few discussions, they agreed to split into 5 equal amounts. The ex-team leader was obviously no longer entitled for a share.

"Alright… just take your share and leave." Garry said after dividing the money into 5 equal amounts. Jeremiah did not waste further words, taking his share and left immediately.

"He left just like that?" Elena asked sadly. She didn't think the team would split up like this. They had worked so well together.

"He made the most logically choice." Garry nodded. "This place is full of hidden masters and dangers. Who would be in the right mind would dare to enter the forest and hunt for treasures again?"

What Garry said made sense. Elena agreed. They didn't belong here. Perhaps, the high prices set by the merchants was purposely used to lure people here. It was too dangerous.

After Garry left, Elena soon left. Nina offered to stay behind and wait for Leo. At the end of the day, their thoughts were still a little simple and funny. Ignoring whether Leo would survive or not, would someone strong enough to be a marquis even care about this little bit of money?

…

In a different inn within Blackwillow Town, a bloodied figured suddenly barged into one of the occupied guestrooms. "Give me a Blood Replenishment Pill. I will pay you back in the future." The person said weakly.

"Oh? Who did you in like this?" the owner of the room said with some mild interest, without being displeased by the sudden intrusion.

"A Crawford royalty at the one-star level. Never mind that, give me the pill!" Elias wore a deathly pale complexion. He desperately needed to replenish his blood with pills. He didn't have the usual strength to find a target to extract and refine their blood. His heart was punctured and the price for using the blood evasion technique was 20% of his blood. He was at death's door.

"Hmm, interesting. Well, you still owe me a few Blood Enhancement Pills. How about you pay me back now?" The room owner said amusingly, before stretching out his hand to grab at Elias's head.

"Huh?" Elias was shocked and retreated, before he became furious. "What are you trying to do, Easton! We are fellow sect members!"

"Since you know we are fellow sect members, you should also know we are a sect full heartless and uncompassionate people, who only care about their own self-interest. Even if you use the Blood Replenishment Pill, you would not be able to recover your strength. Since that is the case, you might as well give your blood to me and help me advance to the one-star."

Easton palm was like a blackhole filled with the force of attraction. No matter how Elias retreated, the palm continued to draw closer, before latching itself onto his head.

"UAHHHH!!"

Elias issued a heart wrenching cry of pain. He was weakened too severely to resist his blood from being drained. The pain he felt was worse than someone being skinned alive.

"Don't worry. Once I successfully advance my strength to one-star, I will go seek revenge for you." Easton said indifferently.

When Elias heard these words, his eyes bulged red with fury. At this moment, the person he hated the most was not Leon, but the person in front of him. Before he could even curse, all traces of redness receded from his eyes along with his life as his body dropped to the floor lifelessly like a deflated balloon.

Easton refined all the blood, before smacking his lips in satisfaction with his eyes closed, feeling the surging strength in his body. A faint image of Leon mystically appeared in his mind. This was a side effect of the victim's grievance and resentment entering Easton.

"So, this person is a member of the Crawford royal family… Interesting!"

Chapter 153 - Four Perilous Lands

In the Human Domain, where humans are able to seek sanctuary from the beast race, they began to flourish once more. But despite being called the Human Domain, its lands were not been fully conquered by humans.

There were four regions in the Human Domain that could not be conquered by humans since the time of its formation. Such places were referred to as the Perilous Land, a natural death zone to all who tread its territory, except the strong and abled. In spite of the dangers that exist within the Perilous Lands, it doesn't stop people from braving it for the fortunes and secrets that lies within.

Extreme Misty Forest was one such place. In the Ishaan Kingdom, they have the scorching sands of the Grand Surya Desert. In the Valaran Kingdom, they have the unreachable Supreme Sword Mountain, the tallest mountain in the Human Domain. Lastly, the Geyser Kingdom has the treacherous blackwater of the Shadow Basin, sinking all creation without exception. However, ever since the emergence of the Underground World, few people have begun to argue it was the fifth Perilous Land of the Human Domain.

Extreme Misty Forest was known for its extreme weather, but not because its yin-attribute mist was harmful to life. A person only needs to ward off the mist to stop it from harming them. What truly made Extreme Misty Forest a terrifying place, was the mist had nourishing effects on the souls of the dead, allowing ghosts and spirits to prosper.

A weak soul would slowly dissipate over time without the nourishment of its body, but due to the existence of the mist, it could exist indefinitely. If the forest contained the souls of all life that ever died on the continent since the start of the Cataclysm, it would be a terrifying number to think about. Even worse, no one knew how these souls would be after 500 years.

If Leon did not have the fire and lightning attributes, he would have never dared to tread beyond the safe boundary. He was surrounded by thousands of vengeful spirits wherever he went. He did not doubt that once he dismisses the flames protecting him, all the vengeful spirits would pounce on him and invade his mind.

No matter how strong his mind is, he would still get possessed under barrage of so many vengeful spirits, just like a big elephant can still be killed by an army of ants. Thus, he kept his flame expenditure to a bare minimum.

"Hm?" Leon's foot froze in midair just as he was about to finish taking his next step. He withdrawn his step and crouched down and turn over a slab of rock. "Oh! Another rare herb was hiding underneath! Fortunately, I didn't finish the last step and squash it. It would have been ruined."

"Let me see what this herb is…" Leon rummaged through limitless knowledge contained in the Whitespace. After finding the relevant information, he was pleasantly surprised. "This is the Forgetful Iceflower! I can treat Rachel's trauma with this."

But then Leon soon shook his head. Regarding the treatment of his fiancée's trauma, he had long found two feasible methods, one soft and one hard, but he pushed it to the back of his mind due to the lack of herbs. Both methods were soul-related treatment and also require special herbs with yin-attributes. However, the methods of treatment weren't exactly ideal.

The first method was to use the Forgetting Nightmare Pill, which erases all the bad memories. This was the soft method. If the bad experience didn't exist, then the trauma would also not exist. This was what the Forgetful Iceflower was used for.

However, memories, whether good or bad was what shaped a person's character. If he erases his fiancee's bad memories, her trauma would be cured, true, but would she still be the same person? This was something he had to consult the Lancaster family on.

The other method was to refine the Reminiscent Trial Pill. This was the hard method. Once Rachel ingest this pill, she would fall into a dreadful dream and relive those bad experience over and over for an entire hour. However, time operates differently between dream and reality. To others, it may only be one hour, but to Rachel, it could be weeks, months or even years.

This method was not much different from torture and was especially dangerous. If she could not endure and overcome the trial, she may never wake up. But if she manages to overcome her trial, it would be beneficial for her cultivation.

Whatever her choice was, Leon would respect it. He also made up his mind to teach the Lancaster family the [Fiery God Manual] when he gets the chance.

Sometime later, Leon also managed to find the Reminiscent Iceflower after the Forgetful Iceflower and sighed. This must be fate.

After carefully storing away the herb, Leon continued search between the 400-500 yards region. He did not encounter much mutated ghouls here as he did when he first entered.

"Those must have been reared by the so-called Bloodfiend Sect." Leon concluded with squinted eyes. "Treating people like livestock. As expect of blood cultivators. They all deserve death."

From his speculation and inference, the Bloodfiend Sect must be quite large and reputable somewhere in one of the other kingdoms. But no matter how reputable it was, it was still and evil sect and should be wiped out. How could be allow these bloodsuckers feed unscrupulously on the human race's dwindling population?

After herb hunting for another three hours, Leon found a few more herbs, but they weren't what he was looking for. Not willing to leave a treasure when he sees one, he harvested all the herbs and placed them in his Worldspace anyway.

"Let's call it a day." Leon sighed. "Although I could spend the whole night looking, it's not wise to exhaust my essence. I should give myself some room to maneuver in case of unpredictable events."

Returning from the path he took, Leon arrived at the location of the reared mutated ghouls he incapacitated.

"Hm? Someone else has been here." Leon frowned. All the mutated ghouls that he had left lying on the ground had turned into cold corpses. This was not his doing. He had only incapacitated them. "Someone sucked all their blood vitality. There's another blood cultivator!"

Leon became vigilant once he arrived at that thought. However, it was especially hard to sense anything within the thick white mist of the deep forest. He couldn't rely on his obscured vision nor smell. That was why he wasn't able to find much herbs.

This further strengthened his desire to improve his soul strength so he could use his divine sense for freely.

As Leon stepped back into the safe boundary, he was immediately attacked!

Shing**

He blocked the figure's sword attack with his black spear. He had expected an ambush and had been prepared for it, except the force of the blow was stronger than he had anticipated, blowing him back a few yards.

"Oh? You knew I was going to ambush you?" Easton said with surprise.

"It was too easy to predict. You shouldn't have touched those Mutated Ghouls." Leon answered with squinted eyes. He viewed each mutated ghoul as a fat sum of money, but all 15 mutate ghoul had been sucked dry. That was a tremendous of wealth! Leon would naturally be unhappy. But at least, he would get some karmic virtue to make up for it by killing the person. It was better than nothing.

After the block, Leon lunged forward for a killing blow, thrusting his black spear straight at the other person's head.

Swoosh** The attack missed.

"Phew, that was scary." Easton said with relief, after evading the blow. "Aren't you even going to ask who I am and why I'm attacking you?"

Leon ignored his words, lunging forward with a one-handed swing of his spear. The other hand sneakily flicked a few needles at the other figure's acupoints to immobilize him. Unfortunately, the assailant's reaction was extraordinary, swiftly blocking both attacks with a [Blood Wall].

However, Leon's attack did not stop there. He followed up by dashing to the side and aimed for the head with his black spear again.

The assailant was caught unprepared and hastily tried to parry the blow. The spearhead only managed to graze the other person's cheeks before the person retreated a fair distance in alarm.

"Hey, hey, that was too dangerous. I almost died there. You are much stronger than I anticipated." Easton said, before he smiled. "It seems I had asked a stupid question. Since you could predict my ambush, you would also be able to guess my identity."

He was a fellow member of the Bloodfiend Sect. The same as the ex-team leader, Elias, except much stronger. This person's strength was at two-stars. The mutated ghouls must have boosted the person's strength a fair bit.

Leon frowned as he could guess that much. The other person was stronger than him. Leon also could increase his attacking power threefold and reach the same level of strength at the other person, but he refrained from doing so. He didn't know if there were any other members of the same sect lying in ambush. he didn't want to use such double-edge skills without confirming.

"Your strike is very decisive. I guess you learnt your mistake from my fellow sect member. It's a surprise that you're not afraid of my strength with just your one-star strength. Perhaps you are still holding back? Afraid that I'm not alone? Well, you don't have to worry about that and fight wholeheartedly. Us members of the Bloodfiend Sect tend to act independently." Easton carelessly said as blood seeped out of the cut on his cheek and formed a solid blood helmet to protect his head.

After hearing those words, Leon's face twitched. He didn't expect to bump into such a talkative and stupid person while fighting. The person basically sentenced his own death. Although he would like to subdue the other party and fish some information out the person's mouth, he could not be careless.

In a battle between experts, life and death could be decided in a single instance. He had to fight with the intent to kill.

"Is that so… Then you can go die now!"

Leon closed the distance by half with explosive speed using [Extreme Vanishing Step], before coming to a grinding stop and fired his black spear with impossible speed from his hands, using threefold strength.

What!!!

The spear was too fast! It was already right in front of him. Easton exclaim mentally in horror as it was too late to dodge. Although it seemed like he was underestimating Leon, he was actually provoking him to attack. But in the end, he still severely underestimated Leon.

The black spear was wrapped in three elements! The destructive and penetrative force was enhanced by fire and lightning, while metal made it sharper and even faster!

Boom!

The black spear shot through the blood cultivator's head like a hot knife through butter and penetrated through several other trees before finally stopping. Those were extremely sturdy trees! Even after so many years logging business, only so many trees had been cut down from Extreme Misty Forest!

Leon widened his eyes in shock, visibly shaken by the results himself. The force of that attack had been far greater than he anticipated. His attack should've only produced the strength of three-stars, but it rivaled the attack of a cultivator at four-stars!

"Where did the extra force come from?" Leon pondered. Calculating the force of the three elements, it was still far from reaching four-stars. What was he missing?

Recalling his previous attack… he had dashed very fast, before throwing his spear… dashed… very fast... speed…?

His eyes lit up as he understood what he failed to calculate in his attack.

"Kinetic energy."

Chapter 154 - Triggering A Phenomenon

Kinetic energy... a simple term yet carries unlimited potential.

After learning the usefulness of kinetic energy in battle, it opened a new world for Leon and lead him back to one profound truth; only speed is unbreakable.

Speed could be converted into raw power and that power could be transferred into his attacks. As long as his body was strong enough to cope with the transference, his spear throwing attacks could reach unimaginable heights, slaying opponents beyond his level with one shot.

"I'm going to become a one-shot wonder." Leon smiled, as he inspected the condition of his arm by contracting and relaxing his muscles. "It's seems my body has become a bit stronger after reaching the 9th Layer of Body Tempering Realm. I can withstand threefold with little damage incurred. Once I reach the peak 9th Layer, I should be able to use threefold strength freely without a problem."

After finishing his inspection, Leon searched the headless body of the member from the Bloodfiend Sect.

"Damn! This person is a freaking pauper! Not even a single penny on him." Leon grumbled, before poaching some strange pills and a manual on the said body. He took a whiff of the pills and understood its usage. "This is a sort blood replenishing pill… this should be a blood enhancing pill…"

Moving his sights onto the manual, he was a bit moved. The manual was called the [Blood Refining Art]. It was a simple name, but its purpose was easily understood. Leon rubbed his chin in contemplation. To say he wasn't interested in learning it, he would be lying.

The reason blood cultivators were despised was because they were unscrupulous in their pursuit of power, murder innocent mortals indiscriminately. Humans weren't the only race with red blood flowing in their veins either. The beast race had much stronger physique than humans and would naturally have stronger blood vitality as well.

If he could resolve the grievance and resentment aura and stop it from corrupting his mind, he would have no hesitation in learning the [Blood Refining Art] to strengthen his body.

"I'll store it away for now." Leon tossed the pills and manual into his Worldspace and proceeded to return to Blackwillow Town.

…

At midnight, the streets of Blackwillow Town was devoid of life as the town was shrouded in the darkness of the night and the gloomy clouds blotted out the moon from showering the town in its cascading light.

Blackwillow Town was not like the Upper District of the Capital, where the streets are bustling with activities day and night all year round. At Blackwillow Town, all residents and visitors retire early to their sleeping chambers.

Midnight was the point of time, when the forest was at its coldest and the howls and screams of spirits can be heard coming from the forest. There were reported cases, where people have gone missing within the safety of the town's wall. Many believed that the vengeful spirits of the forest roamed the streets at night and spirited away those people. Due to that belief, no one dared to step foot outside at night.

However, on the second floor of an inn, light could still be seen radiating outside through the open windows.

KNOCK KNOCK*

The knock on the door, roused Nina awake. It appeared she had fallen asleep over at the candlelit table at some point. "Who is it?"

"Esteemed guest, I am the innkeeper of this inn. I'm just here to kindly remind you to close the windows and turn off the lights. It is dangerous around this time of the night and people tend to go missing if they wonder outside." The innkeeper said courteously. In truth, his reminder was one of selfishness rather than kindness. He didn't want his inn to attract misfortune.

"Oh?" Nina was surprised as she was not a local and did not know about the town's superstitions, but she soon nodded in understanding. "I see. Thank you for the reminder."

She arrived by the windows and prepared to shut it, when the silhouette of a person could be seen walking on the dark streets.

"Hmm?" Nina intended to pass on the reminder to the fella out of good will, but soon realized who it was. Her cherry lips rose up into a crescent smile. "Your high… Leo, over here!" She hollered. She almost blurted out 'your highness' but managed to stop halfway.

Receiving Nina's call, Leon floated over and entered the room through the window. Seeing she was alone, he asked. "Where are the others?"

"They have all left. This place was too dangerous to stay."

Listening to her reply, Leon nodded. "That's understandable. The waters of Blackwillow Town is surprisingly quite deep." His soon knitted his brows and said, "If I recalled, you were the timidest one in the group. Why are you still here when the others have already left?"

His reminder made Nina blush in shame. She didn't want to recall the moment when she had to pathetically beg the ex-team leader for mercy. As an offspring of the Baron-level Lowell family, she had her pride as a noble. But under the threat of death, she had to pathetically beg the ex-team leader for mercy. The events had become a stain on her life; however, she did not blame Leon for bringing it up.

"I… since everyone was leaving, I volunteered to stay back to wait and hand over your share of today's hunt to you, your highness." Nina said with her head lowered, while passing a bag of money to Leon.

"I see. Thank you. Hmm...since you know I am royalty, you should also know I don't lack this bit of money, right?" Leon said, but he still accepted the money.

Nina's lips twitched at the contradicting words and action of the prince. However, she put on a smile and said humbly, "Yes, yes, you're right, your highness. But this money belongs to your highness, as the team has agreed on upon before we had set out to hunt. No one would dare to take the money of royalty."

Although Leon neither admitted nor denied his status, his lack of reaction towards her form of address was taken as silent admittance. Under that assumption, it strengthened her belief that her choice to stay behind was the best choice she made.

There were two reasons why she still had courage to stay behind and wait for the prince. Firstly, she thought it would be safe enough inside the town. Secondly, she wanted to establish a connection with the royal family.

Within the upper class, establishing connections with other nobles and royalty was beneficial towards one's business and provide a form of protection. More often than not, the rise and fall of a family was dictated by the extent of their connections. As such, it was quite common for nobles to host banquets and social gatherings for the purpose of establishing these connections.

Leon could read her intentions like an open book. He did not despise these types of people as this was what the weak had to do in order to survive. However, he did not like it either. That's why, he would rather not make his status public to avoid this type of situation.

"Since I have taken my share, I shall be leaving now." Leon intended to exit through the window he entered with.

"W-Wait, your highness!" Surprised, Nina tugged on his clothes and blushed. "All the places offering accommodations are closed at this time. How about you stay here for the night, your highness?"

Her suggestion made Leon silent, as he quietly observed her expressions. Under his gaze, Nina began to lower her head as her face flushed with shyness. "If… If you wish, I could serve you for tonight, your highness." She said coyly.

If this was in the past, he would have gladly accepted what was offered to him on a silver platter. However, he was no longer interested in such casual relationships. Sex without feelings was rather dull.

"Not interested."

Leon left after leaving behind his cold reply. Nina was actual relieved after Leon left. She wasn't a casual woman like she appeared to be.

As the second eldest daughter of Baron Haldren, she was also required to pull her weight for the rise of the family.

Strangely, there was also some traces of disappointment in her heart. She did not feel humiliated for being rejected and felt some admiration for the prince instead.

When Leon left, he flew out of town to a secluded hill to cultivate, as sleep could be replaced with cultivation, plus it was more productive.

"Let's find out the extent of this heavenly treasure's ability."

The Book of Life materialized on top of his palm and began to draw in all the energy of heaven and earth from the surrounding. Its capacity for absorption was alarming, whipping up a storm as all energy within a 100-mile radius of him was visibly stirred. The energy of heaven and earth funnelled into the Book of Life from the sky like a descending tornado.

Strangely, such a large change in the sky did not alarm the common populace in the surrounding under the veil of the night. Only the high-level Awakeners that was relatively sensitive to energy was able to sense the change.

Leon was great startled as he had not anticipated the Book of Life to trigger such a grand phenomenon. He quickly ended the absorption and recalled the Book of Life back into his soulcore, before disappearing from the location.

A few minutes later, several figures began arriving one after another from all directions.

Chapter 155 - Dispute Over A Hill

The sudden phenomenon in the sky was alarming. The first people to sense the change were the hidden experts residing in Blackwillow Town. The stir in energy had shocked them as they were reminded of the previous phenomenon that occurred not long ago.

The previous phenomenon was caused by a person breaking through to the legendary Transcendent Realm. As such, they couldn't help but also relate tonight's phenomenon to another person's breakthrough to Transcendent Realm.

Primrose Merchant Association Branch, Blackwillow Town, 8th floor.

"Senior Apprentice Brother, another person is breaking through to the Transcendent Realm in this kingdom! Should we go take a look?" A young lady in white robe with a bluesilver butterfly image on the back, rushed into the room and suggested.

"Is that so?" The Senior Apprentice Brother Cal took a glimpse at the sky outside and saw the silent phenomenon taking place. He rubbed his chin in deep thought. "It looks a bit different to the previous phenomenon… but this tremendous power… there's no doubt about it. It's a Transcendent breakthrough."

Cal donned a similar white robe, before hopping outside from the window. "Let's go congratulate this senior on his breakthrough to Transcendent Realm. It would be beneficial to our sect if we can befriend this senior, Junior Apprentice Sister Celia. We have to be quick, before others get there first."

Even if it wasn't a senior breaking through to the Transcendent Realm, it could be the birth of some sort of treasure. In that case, they definitely couldn't let others get to it first. With that thought in mind, Cal began moving in a rhythmic step, creating fading afterimages and blinked dozens of yards ahead at a time. He was using the [Profound Butterfly Steps] of his sect.

"Huh? Wait for me for me, Senior Apprentice Brother Cal!" Celia utilized her proficiency of [Profound Butterfly Steps] to chase after her senior apprentice brother.

At the location of the hill, they were the first to arrive.

"Huh? This should be the center of the phenomenon, right? There's nothing here." Celia said doubtfully.

Cal creased his brows. Was he wrong? Or was he too late? The phenomenon ended too quickly.

Swoosh**

Several other figures began appearing on the hill not long after. An elder and two other young attendants, who seemed to be the elder's disciples. The elder was aged but possessed a certain youthful and domineering vigor to him. They had arrived from the nearby Rainwallow City. The elder scanned the hill before locking onto the two people.

"You two over there! Where is the Transcendent Master?" The Elder pointed and questioned them overbearingly.

His overbearing attitude immediately angered the two white-robes. "Hmph! The Transcendent Master is not here. Please leave! The Illusory Butterfly Sect is occupying this hill." Cal said sternly with a deep frown.

"Presumptuous! You want this elder to leave!?" The elder snarled, but then his eyes quickly lit up in the next instance. "Since there is no Transcendent Master here, there must a great treasure! You two can get lost! The Bloodfiend Sect is taking over this hill!"

"Shameless Old bastard! We were clearly here first!" Celia insulted.

The Bloodfiend sect elder's face immediately went dark. He was an expert at the five-star Awakener Realm. "Hmph! How dare a little lass like you disrespect me! Let me educate you on behalf of your elders!" The elder sneered.

He slit his wrist, allowing blood to gush out and formed a giant blood claw. It clawed at the white-robe duo with great speed, intending to viciously cripple them. However, in the face of such impending danger, the duo did not avert their gazes, facing the claw bravely without any panic with their meagre strength at the 9th step Awakener Realm.

The composed looks made the elder frowned as he thought these two brats were too pompous and ignorant. Did they think he wouldn't dare to kill them!? A trace of killing intent flashed in his eyes as he made up his mind to rip them to shreds.

However, before the blood claw reached them, some silvery-blue mist shot over at extremely high speed and plunged into the blood claw from the opposite direction. The blood claw seemed to have been inflicted with some sort of nasty poison, causing the blood claw to lose its power. Bubbly spots appeared all over the blood claw, before it finally exploded into countless fluttering butterflies briefly. It soon dissipated into nothingness shortly after.

"Who!?" The Bloodfiend Sect raged. He was filled with great fury and regrets. He did not care whether someone had blocked his attack or not. What he cared was the blood loss he had incurred as a result of that person's intervention!

"Old Claw, how I teach my disciples, it is the responsibility of I, their master. You think you are qualified to take my place to educate them?" A lazy voice drifted over, as an elder in white robes with the trademark butterfly mark on the back appeared with two other disciples.

"Master!" Cal and Celia happily shouted and walked over to the elder's side.

"You two brats are quite daring. If I had not appeared, the both of you would have been dead!" The elder grumbled.

"We knew master would come to save us." Celia hugged her master's arm with a chuckle.

"You silly lass." The elder nudged her on the head, before his expression turned serious. "Quickly fill master on what happened."

"Yes, master. We saw the phenomenon in the sky and arrived quickly, but did not see any Transcendent Master, then…" Cal recounted the situation briefly.

After listening, the elder's eyes lit up for the same reason. If it wasn't a Transcendent breakthrough, it had to be a treasure!

"Old Claw, you can get your people and piss off! My disciples arrived at this hill first, thus this hill belong to my Illusory Butterfly Sect!"

"Old Poison! So, it was you! How dare you destroy my blood vitality! Are you intending to start a war between our sect!?" Old claw said furiously. The culprit was his long-standing rival from the opposing sect!

"Hmph! So what if I am!? Do you think we aren't already at war!? Are you pretending we never had conflicts, both in the open and in the dark before!?"

"Very well! Let's old scores and new ones today!"

The two sides began to clash and erupt into a fierce battle. There were five people from Illusory Butterfly Sect, while there were only three people from Bloodfiend Sect. The weaker side was quickly determined in a short clash.

Old Claw frowned when his side was outnumbered. His blood boiled when he realized his two disciples stationed in Blackwillow Town did not arrive after such a commotion. He quickly popped a few pills in his mouth and erupted with greater strength.

The two attendants from the Bloodfiend Sect followed suit and swallowed similar pills, drew their weapons and battled!

The Bloodfiend Sect was more careful when battling with the Illusory Butterfly Sect. They avoid using blood techniques in case of being poisoned. The Illusory Butterfly Sect was renowned for their illusory techniques and poison. They were masters of assassination and should've been weak in close combat.

But after competing for many years, the Illusory Butterfly Sect had honed their techniques to avoid suffering a loss in close combat. The [Profound Butterfly Steps] allowed the Illusory Butterfly Sect members to freely evade the attacks from the other side.

After a while, the complexion of the two attendants from the Bloodfiend Sect's side began to turn purple.

"Be careful of their poison aura! These people are lunatics, who swallow poison to cultivate! Have you both forgotten!?" Old Claw bellowed, while evading from Old Poison's poison aura.

"It's too late to save them, Old Claw! They've already been poisoned! They're as good as dead!" Old Poison laughed, as he continues to press forward. If he could wipe out the Bloodfiend Sect members today, they would have no competition over the resources of the north for a while.

Poison aura had different grades of toxicity. The first level poison aura was green in color, the second level was greenish purple, the third level was blueish purple, while the fourth level was bluesilver, which Old Poison has currently achieved. Only the sect leader had achieved the fifth level poison aura, which was pure silver in color.

It was said that the sect leader's poison aura was nearing the transparency level and could poison people without them knowing they were even poisoned. Only poison experts could detect it.

After the two sides fought a deadly battle for a while, the two attendants were soon killed by the poison. However, they managed to drag one person from the other side to the netherworld with them.

"Dammit!" Old Claw roared and made a powerful slash with his sword as it rippled with a strong blood wave, forcing Old Poison back. "Remember this, Old Poison! This isn't over!"

Old Claw took the opportunity to escape. The situation was too unfavorable for him. If only his two other disciples were present, he would not have suffered such losses.

"Master, what should we do with Gahan's body?" Cal asked after the battle.

"We will take his body and bury it later. Quickly search the hill for the treasure! It could be underground." Old Poison issued.

However, they were bound to be disappointed as there was no treasure. If the two sides knew that they had been fighting over a non-existent treasure, they would have been angered to death.

As the bloody dispute over the hill transpired, the culprit, Leon had been quietly cultivating in the Worldspace this entire time.

Chapter 156 - Let Bygones Be Bygone

Inside the Worldspace, the concentration of energy from heaven and energy reached the minimum density level for it to be seen with the naked eye. Multicoloured particles of energy could be seen floating about in the Worldspace.

The energy particles mainly consist of the five elements, but if one looked carefully, they would be able to see a few particles of spirit energy. However, this spirit energy was automatically swallowed up by the Worldspace itself and transformed life energy.

Unfortunately, the amount of life energy added to the Worldspace was like trying to revitalise dry land with a drop of water. There were no visible changes to the life soil.

However, Leon did not care about this. He knew the meagre amount of spirit energy would not change anything and simply focused on refining the energy of heaven and earth in the Worldspace. His cultivation swiftly rose all the way to the peak 9th Layer of Body Tempering Realm.

"Haih... If I have discovered such a quick way of cultivating, I would not have to struggle so much." Opening his eyes and expelling a wave of impure air, Leon sighed. But then he shook his head right after. "No, those hardships were valuable tempering experience."

As much as he hates to admit, he had been living in vain in his previous life. His 30-year old self of his previous life could not even compare to his 17-year old self of the present life in terms of maturity. Truly, hardship forces one to mature quickly.

"I have reached the peak 9th Layer of Body Tempering Realm. It's time to push for a breakthrough to the next realm."

The process of breaking through to Energy Condensation Realm was to compress and condense all his strands of energy floating in his energy centre into liquid form. For Leon, who struggled to expand his energy centre due to his strong physique, he had a much easier time in condensing his energy.

The process only took him a few hours to condense all his strands of energy into a few drops of concentrated energy and his energy centre became spacious again. Leon circulated the liquid energy throughout his body, causing his body to undergo another impurity cleansing.

Compared to the first time, there wasn't as much impurity. What surprised Leon was his body could still be tempered with the energy!

It seems he had to re-evaluate the [Hegemon of Primal Chaos]! The energy of the Energy Condensation Realm could still be used to temper his body!

Leon continued to circulate the energy and allowed it to strengthen his body, swiftly increasing his raw physical strength.

Some time later, when the benefits of circulating his energy became negligible, he ended his cultivation and tests his strength with a few normal punches and kicks, whipping gusts of wind.

"Roughly 1800-jin force. My physical strength is now on par with one-star Awakeners." Leon concluded, before smiling wryly. "This method of cultivating is really great. Unfortunately, it attracts too much attention."

"I should check if there are still people on that hill." Leon amusingly thought. He had run very fast and was in a secluded location a few miles away from the hill.

Leon exited the Worldspace and glanced in the direction of the hill. Sure enough, there was still people on the hill. With his excellent eyesight, he could see many people digging up holes on the hill.

…

"Master, I don't think there is a treasure here. I think it was a Transcendent Senior, that left quickly after he broke through because he didn't want to be disturbed." Cal said with a helpless expression.

For this so-called treasure, it had cost them one fellow apprentice brother. They been digging holes all over the hill without any gains.

"How can this be? Why is there no treasure!? No, perhaps we haven't dug deep enough. Keep digging." Old Poison commanded.

Listening to his master, he was baffled beyond belief. His master seemed to be very certain that a treasure existed. He would have still thought the same way, but after digging for hours, he no longer had such hopes.

"How can you be sure there is a treasure here, Master?"

"I'm not sure at all, but on the off chance that there is a treasure, we definitely can't miss this sort of treasure." Old Poison eye's shined as he recalled the phenomenon that drew in all the energy within a 100-mile radius.

"What sort of treasure are we looking for?" Celia came over and asked grumpily, while wiping dirt off her face. Why did she had to work so hard, while her senior apprentice brother was slacking off?

"An energy gathering formation treasure." Old Poison said with shining eyes, as if he could picture the grand rise of their sect.

"Ah? Like the one we have in our sect?" Taken aback, Celia asked to confirm.

Old Poison nodded. "Precisely, but much more powerful."

With that said, the disciples of Illusory Butterfly Sect began digging with renewed vigor. Leon watched their wasted efforts in amusement.

"These people have too much time on their hands." Leon chuckled, before returning inside the Worldspace.

After tending to his herbal garden, Leon spent the rest of the night studying the soul-related knowledge.

The following day, Leon visited the nearby Rainwallow City early in the morning and bought all the available pill bottles from both Lucretius and Primrose Merchant Association, shocking both branches and attracted their attention.

However, after purchasing the 2000 pill bottles from both merchant stores and have them delivered to a room he booked, he stored them into his Worldspace, before quietly slipping away from the city unnoticed and headed back to Extreme Misty Forest.

…

The Capital, Royal Palace, the Queen's private courtyard.

"You called for us, your Majesty?" Robert entered with his wife and asked in disbelief. They weren't sure for what reason they were summoned. The number of people, who could enter the Inner District in the last 17 years could be counted with one's fingers. They weren't sure whether they should be worried or feel honoured either. They were filled with complex emotions.

"Mmm, sit. No need to be formal." Sitting leisurely at the tea table, Elizabeth gestured for them to be seated opposite of her before they continue to talk.

"Yes, your Majesty." They answered anyway. Seated opposite of the Queen, the Greene couple began to grow nervous, while they waited for the Queen to speak. However, Elizabeth did not immediately speak, but poured them both a cup of tea.

The couple found it hard to believe the Queen would personally pour them a cup of tea each. They couldn't guess the Queen's intentions. "Y-Your Majesty, there's no need to personally pour for us. We can do it ourselves."

"It's fine. I said you don't need to be formal."

"Y-Yes!"

They began to lapse into silence as Elizabeth proceeded to sip from her own cup. After a while, which seemed like eternity to the Greene couple, Elizabeth finally spoke.

"Do you hate me for what I did in the past?"

"W-We wouldn't dare, your Majesty!" Robert and his wife were shocked by the question. They naturally knew what the Queen meant. They were tormented by it for the past 17 years.

The [Water of Absolute Nothingness]. They, along with many other noble families were forced to drink this abhorrent poison after being implicated in the rebellion. Some were innocent, some were not.

Regardless of who was right and wrong, the Greene family should have never been among the list. They had been one of the Crawford royal family's staunchest supporter and loyal subject. Anyone can betray the royal family, but not them.

"I wish to apologize for actions back then. Sorry." Elizabeth took the initiative to stand up and bow to the couple as she said this.

The couple was completely caught off-guard by the Queen's actions. They never blamed the Queen for what happened back then. They understood how much pain and anguish the Queen must have felt after having her family torn apart. But while they understood, the grievance in their heart still exist in the deepest recess of their heart. After all, they had been innocent.

However, at this point, they suddenly felt the suffering they endured was worth it. How much determination did it take for the Queen to put away her dignity and bow to her subjects? Furthermore, the Queen's son had already cured them, and they had regained their cultivation.

Their eyes grew moist as the grievances hidden in the heart finally had an outlet. "We don't blame you, your Majesty. It's all in the past now… Let bygones be bygone." The couple sighed emotionally. They didn't expect the knot in their heart would be undone so easily with a simple sorry and bow.

Elizabeth hadn't expected the couple to be so understanding. She was filled with guilt and deeply regretted her past actions.

Matters of 17 years ago had been too strange. The Duke's rebellion and her rampage. Both seemed to have been under the influenced of some unknown force that clouded their minds and forced them make irrational choices. But that was no excuse for what she did. The apology was what she owed them.

Receiving the couple's forgiveness so easily, Elizabeth mood was heavy.

"Thank you." Elizabeth said with difficulty.. She made up her mine to treat the Greene family well in the future. After a moment of silence, Elizabeth asked, "I heard you both have a daughter?"