In a peaceful location within the forest, hundreds of kilometers away from Abaddon's current spot stood a remote courtyard. The two guards standing at the door were bone fide Body Tempering experts.
A middle-aged man and an old man with an imposing and threatening presence came along with a disciple as their guide.
" Dragon slayers, please enter!"
The man was very polite. He opened the door, stood at the side, and bowed for them to pass. The other guards instantly followed suit, their eyes filled with reverence and respect toward the duo.
They were one of the twelve great clans personal guards, always welcomed with courtesy and bows everywhere.
However, this time around they were the ones who had to act with full respect towards the people who were being guided by one of the clan's disciples and not the other way around.
In the whole empire, no one wasn't told of the legendary stories of the dragon slayers that at one time even dared to fight off a whole den full of dragons alone.
Their fame that was generated cause of their heroic and courageous behavior made them respected and feared in every place that they travel to in their missions.
Matter of fact, they even had a terrifying amount of clans that are always yearning to hire them on different missions that mattered for their own clan's benefits.
Unfortunately, only a selected few of clans could afford to hire the dragon slayers, and their payment wasn't even with spirit stones but instead with cultivation resources. Hence that made it way more impossible for anyone random to make use of their services.
The disciple was full of pride inside, outside however he still showed a flattering smile as he guided them inside.
They soon arrived at a garden.
A single pavilion was laid in the middle with a stone table inside. A middle-aged man sat in the seat of honor and behind him stood a young man that was clearly in his 30s, his cultivation unfathomable to the onlookers.
On one side of the middle-aged man was a young man woman, with a little girl behind her that stood with the utmost respect in front of these people, her hands shaking from time to time cause of how stressed she currently is.
On the other side of the man it was an old man, contrary to the other two however, no one was standing behind him. His eyes closed and people could instantly think that was deep in sleep yet their experiences with this old man who is their elder made them not make any guesses when things came to him.
There were two additional empty stools around the table that were obviously saved for Derek and his father Ron.
" Even with my dragon physique I could still feel the pressure coming from these three people sitting in their chairs, this must be the strength of one of the great twelve clans! "
Derek rubbed his nose as he marveled over the world and its deep hidden depths and took a step back, letting his father take the lead instead of walking on his same level of steps.
Ron nodded in approval, clearly satisfied with his son's quick reaction and not letting the arrogance of being praised by tens of millions of people get to his head to the point where he would walk head-on heading to a meeting of one of the twelve great clans top ranked elders.
The highly respected and feared elders sitting on their stone chairs didn't react to what just happened, since they knew that their guests weren't ignorant and understood which ground they were placing their feet inside.
It was clear that the meeting was between the three elders and the dragon slayers. But things didn't work that way since strength was above all, and since Derek was plainly weaker than everyone present here then it would be disrespectful if he showed up in front of them displaying his arrogance.
This wasn't a show of power or anything of that sort, this was simply house rules of every clan in existence in this world and everyone understood these simple rules.
" Please, come on."
The disciple saw the people leisurely sitting inside and bowed ninety degrees towards the dragon slayers in a show of respect that displayed the great clan words.
The middle-aged man situated in the middle seemed to like this disciple's good flattery skills and instant process of thoughts, a faint smile replaced his indifferent one for a split of a second.
The dragon slayers didn't react in the slightest as this treatment wasn't the bit different from what any other clan gave them whenever they visited their ground for missions or go talk about cultivation and the way to get beyond limits, hence they just went in after they heard the invite.
Only the young man behind the middle-aged one surprisingly got triggered by the disciple's treatment of the duo and showed a disdainful look towards them for a moment.
It went unnoticed by everyone except for Ron that had his senses greatly enhanced by the dragon's physique, thus to feel such an unwelcome look that was shot towards him was easier than drinking for him.
Ron greeted the middle-aged man first and didn't bother to cast even a single glance at the young behind him, " Greetings to Snow Storm elder of the Tempest clan!"
The man asked them to take a seat each with a wave of his hand, " Please sit."
Ron and his son took a seat, while the disciple stood at the side of the room with a mouth shut and head slightly bowed not daring to look anyone in the eyes.
The woman threw a look towards Ron, secretly nodding, ' Extremely powerful, but without any arrogance. He is indeed a man that had a slight look of the hidden secrets of us the great clans.'
The middle-aged man began the meeting, " As you already know, I have invited the two of you here today to take on the mission which is gonna happen tomorrow at sunrise at this place to protect our testing ground from any hidden dangers that might hit them."
The two were focused on the middle-aged man's next words since they knew that they wouldn't be hired for such a trivial matter especially when the three of them were even here.
" The two might have already suspected such a thing, but the mission is indeed not only actually related to the test which explains the high payment that you will receive if it's successfully accomplished. Without any more ado, I'll inform you: We want to slay the ancient dragon that Is sleeping in the depths of this forest."
Gulp!
The duo's bodies shook when they heard the man's words, Ron especially had an exaggerated reaction as his teeth started making a crackling sound.
" Do you know what you are twining about Snow Storm elder? This is an ancient dragon that we are talking about and not something people on our level of strength could take on! Plus, what makes you think that an ancient dragon really exists in the rainforest? "
The middle-aged man had already expected all the questions he will be bombarded with when he chose to slay the ancient dragon, hence he calmly explained.
" I personally with my fellow friends here went on to check if the rumors that are passed down from one generation to another were valid, and after months of thoroughly searching every inch of rainforest we indeed found his lair, we actually even found somewhere that is way more interesting to that."
Ron didn't ask anymore and directly responded, " We agree! "
Their body shook even more as their eyes were burning with fire, their excitement was fully displayed in front of everyone in this room, and to be honest that made them feel great pressure and even fear.
In fact, if spoken in terms of real strength, Ron was the strongest in the room at this very moment. However, as the top-ranked elders of one of the great clans that had its roots deeply placed inside the ground of Storm Empire, they surely had a myriad of trump cards that could threaten Ron despite his dragon's physique.
Another reason why he would take on this mission was his full understanding of the hidden strength of these clans. So if they dared to ask him about such a mission that many failed before him to accomplish, then they are surely ready to take it on.
Of course, just agreeing to the mission isn't the end of this conversation as they actually had to make sure that they had the means to best this ancient dragon silently and cleanly. After all, who would want to throw his life away in such a way?
The old man that had his eyes closed all the time finally opened them, his voice ancient and terrifying as he uttered a few words, " Then let's start talking about everything including this plan, and especially the slight possibility of enemies showing up while we are at it!"