It was early morning on the Magical Beasts Mountain Range, near the Thunder Cliff.
At dragon mercenary group's campsite.
The early morning breeze blew over the grass that was still stained with blood. There were still the remains of magical beasts that had not been cleaned up in the messy battlefield.
The bodies of the mercenary group members that had died in battle had long since been buried by the exhausted survivors. The members of the dragon mercenary group could not possibly watch their brothers' corpses being exposed to the wilderness.
Copperfield gradually woke up and exercised his slightly stiff muscles and bones.
He felt refreshed. Ever since he had left Cavendish town, the tiredness that had accumulated for many days had been swept away.
After waking up, Copperfield carefully examined the condition of his body.
He estimated that with the feedback from the breakthrough in his cultivation realm, the wounds from yesterday's battle with the Wind Magic Wolf pack had already started to show signs of healing.
The soul power in his body had already flowed through his limbs and bones.
Soul power circulated between his every movement.
The degree of control over his soul power had increased by more than just one star.
If the degree of control he had before was due to him being able to divide the soul power in his body into tens of individual portions, now it would have increased massively as he can now split it into hundreds and thousands of portions.
Copperfield opened his tent and saw Clyde sitting cross-legged by the bonfire in the middle of the camp.
Clyde's eyes were bloodshot, and his expression was incomparably fatigued. Clearly, he hadn't rested the entire night. Moreover, he had also experienced a bitter battle.
In the battle, Clyde was the strongest defensive soul master in the group. He had blocked nearly half of the Magic Wolf pack's attacks. Otherwise, who knew how much the dragon mercenary group would have to pay to beat the pack, it was uncertain if they would be able to last until Copperfield started playing the Requiem.
"Leader Clyde."
Copperfield waved at Clayde as a form of greeting.
Seeing Copperfield wake up, a smile appeared in Clyde's eyes.
Even Clyde, who had been through many battles, was unable to see through the youth in front of him.
"Today, the dragon mercenary group is preparing to return back. After encountering such an unforeseen event, it is no longer suitable for us to go deeper into the mountain range," Clyde said. He felt that the youth in front of him was about to leave them.
"I have some matters to deal with. For the time being, I still need to stay in the mountain range."
Hearing Copperfield's reply, a bitter smile appeared on Clyde's face. As expected.
Copperfield, who had just broken through to two-star, in Clyde's eyes, already possessed the qualifications to travel alone in the outskirts of this mountain range. Even if he encountered an opponent he couldn't defeat, it wouldn't be difficult for him to escape.
Copperfield's growth was too fast. Clyde felt that he didn't have many opportunities to repay Copperfield's kindness yesterday.
He seemed to have guessed what Clyde was thinking.
Copperfield said faintly, "Thank you for last night."
Copperfield's gratitude was naturally sincere. Because of his break through yesterday, he had fallen into a deep sleep.
If Clyde chose to take Copperfield down at this time and hand him over to the Cavendish Family, he would have received far more than just wealth and glory.
But Clyde didn't. This was enough for Copperfield to trust him.
Moreover, during these few days of interaction, Copperfield was very clear about how Clyde treated his members.
The cohesion that the dragon mercenary group had was far better than other mercenary groups.
Since Copperfield had made up his mind, Clyde didn't ask why. Even if he could help Copperfield, his members clearly needed his help more now.
After bidding goodbye to Clyde, Copperfield walked in the direction that Elegy had pointed out.
In the Magical Beasts Mountain Range early in the morning, the bloody smell of yesterday had already dissipated. If there weren't any magical beasts lurking in the dark, it would still be a peaceful place.
After casually killing a few blind magical beasts, Copperfield finally arrived at the place where Elegy resonated the most.
This was still near the Thunder Cliff. In a valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, where the cries of magical beasts could be heard nearby.
A withered tree was rooted diagonally on the dry ground. Beside the withered tree, there was a giant rock that was about three meters tall.
Copperfield looked puzzled. He did not see any traces of artificial activity around him. The altar could not be referring to this giant rock in front of him.
Copperfield didn't think too much about it. He walked to the side of the giant rock and looked at it carefully.
After looking around, he didn't find anything special about the giant rock.
This place was different from other places in the mountain range.
When he thought about it, he realized that there must be something unusual about this place since there were no traces of magical beasts in this area.
Elegy got more and more agitated. Copperfield was stunned.
He suddenly remembered the mysterious music score that appeared in his mind during the battle yesterday.
Copperfield gently put Elegy to his mouth.
After a moment, a low and melodious harmonica sound, which sounded as if it had the power to soothe the soul, circled around the valley.
Listening carefully though, the harmonica sound revealed a bone-chilling chill.
Copperfield was getting better.
The scenery in front of him was changing.
When he opened his eyes again, the huge rock had disappeared.
An ancient altar stood in front of Copperfield.
The altar was very simple. It was surrounded by bricks made of unknown materials, revealing traces of coldness.
In the middle of the altar, there was a human-like creature's skull.
On the skull, there were two curved horns that looked like goat bones.
Upon closer inspection, there seemed to be a light blue flame jumping around in the eye sockets.
The entire altar revealed a truly sinister murderous intent that had come from the depths of hell.
Evil, treacherous.
Copperfield observed the altar for a moment.
Just by staring at the altar in front of him, his soul felt a tearing force, as if the force wanted to pull all living creatures in front of the altar into the abyss of Hell.
He found that there seemed to be a rectangular gap on the altar in front of him.
Copperfield hesitated for a moment and put Elegy into the gap.
Dead silence.
The sound and colors of the world seemed to all disappear at this one moment.
It was a feeling of dreadful silence that seemed to have been accumulated for thousands of years, which lasted for only a moment.
Copperfield's heart suddenly jumped.
He heard the wailing of thousands of ghosts.
There was no pungent smell of blood.
There were no screams of killing.
There were no broken limbs flying in despair.
This was...
Pure death!
A hoarse, low voice suddenly sounded in Copperfield's heart.