It's been a week since Ryu started his journey from modok to the capital city, they had took a shorter route that went through a forest so they could get to their destination in time due to the urgings of some important figures who joined on the convoy.
The forest path was more dangerous but the merchants weren't too worried because they also had some experts among their troops, they hired some mercenaries to be the guild throughout the journey.
"Something is not right"
Ryu said with a frown on his face.
The other passengers in the same wagon he was in were already puzzled about the blindfolded kid who was brought by the city Lord and for a week all Ryu did was sit in one position. He wasn't human anymore so he rarely needed food and after one week of being a statue he now had a tight frown on his face saying something was wrong when even they who could see clearly couldn't feel anything.
Some sneered at him while others ignored him completely but Ryu was certain of what he felt. He can also be referred to as a natural predator so he instinctively knew how it felt to be watched by a predator and what got him worried was that he couldn't fight here.
A small wisp of his aura was enough to put him into tons of trouble and he wasn't willing to deal with this much people. His brows relaxed a bit after he looked towards the wagons and carriages in front. Some experts were just laying there in wait and that kind of gave him a little sense of comfort… A little….
He sat back and watched what was going on quietly, he knew one thing that if whatever was monitoring them this moment was a beast then his ability to manipulate emotions will have the least effect and that was the only ability he could use and get by any sort of detection.
He began drawing on the negatives from the surroundings, the displeasure he caused this fellows with his words acted as catalyst and immediately he gained access into the pysche of a few people. He amplified their most prominent evil desires and the more they felt and wallowed in it, the more he became less present in their mix.
A very powerful cultivator didn't need his aura to identify him, just a little scrutiny and he was going to be out in the open, the case with miss Liv showed him a good example, so this time he immediately took action to reduce his presence.
He knew that any big movement he made this moment will only draw the attention of whatever or whoever was watching towards him, so he masked his presence with the dense negative emotions swirling in the wagon.
It was already getting dark and they needed to rest but they haven't found any open spaces to camp at, so the convoy moved on.
In another carriage that was deep in the middle of the convoy , 5 people sat in meditation and they all seemed to not even notice the environment. This men were the experts that the merchants were relying on. Although the mercenaries could fend of some bandits and low level beasts, they would only be food for the higher levels. That was why the merchants put a lot of effort and resources just to hire this 5 men.
Although they all felt it was overkill to have all 5 of them on the same convoy, they didn't voice out any complaints because they needed this resources. As rouge cultivators, the resources in their hands were limited and also gained after enough death trials so protecting a little convoy for more resources wasn't much at all.
Among this men, there was one who seemed to be older, he looked like he was in his 60s, his face wrinkled, beards were already mixed with alot of gray . He looked like those wizened old foggies that could only be found cooped up in the lower chambers of a clan as protectors.
This man was called Danzo. A master in Feng Shui . He loved to dabble into fates and predictions. He could have ascended to the higher planes a long time ago but this old man stopped cultivating when he finally stepped into the soul tempering realm.
He invested his time studying fate and destiny. His achievements in this field could be called small success even in the mortal plane and he was willing to achieve great success in this practice.
He had heard of a master of fate that was situated in the central continent but he had no way to travel that far and after years of traveling from one city to the other searching for an opportunity, he finally decided to make a last stop at the capital where he might get access to a teleportation station that would take him to his destination.
This time his eyes snapped open and blood could be seen flowing from them , it would be easy for anyone who could see him in such a state to deduce that he had probably stared at something beyond his comprehension.
He wanted to get up and alert the others but the convoy came to a halt and he spat a mouthful of blood before collapsing.
"WHO??!!!!" The red headed expert who was suddenly awoken from his meditation was furious and bellowed out in rage.
The other 3 experts also stood up and jumped out of the carriage with deep frown on their faces, they were also furious but they were calm because they knew that whoever could put Danzo in such a state wasn't easy target.
What made them feel a little bit at ease was that they were four of them present.
In the western country, the number of people who could threaten the lives of soul tempering realm experts were so few they could be counted on one hand.
Meanwhile Ryu squinted his eyes from the wagon far behind, he was well aware of the situation more than anyone here. He had expected it all to play this way. He looked around and that's when he felt it. Just the feeling alone sent a jolt down his spine.
"Demon??". He muttered silently as he got more curious and cautious. Curious because he really wanted to see what a real demon looks like and he also wanted to know what one was doing here . Cautious because since he could sense the demon so easily it's highly likely that the demon could sense him too.
When he concentrated more he was stunned dumb by what he sensed.
"It is injured , and quite seriously" Ryu gasped in shock. How powerful was this demon that even with that level of injury it could heavily injure a soul tempering realm cultivator with a glance?? That was totally unacceptable. Even a transcendent couldn't pull that off.
Although a transcendent was powerful, so powerful that they could destroy anything below their cultivation level with just a snap of the finger, this right now despite being injured still made Ryu feel like it could also destroy a peak transcendent with a snort.
But of course Ryu didn't know that the pressure affected him more because of who he was, he was different from everyone on the convoy and he was a product of an inferior race combined with a surbodinate creature of the demons, he was no different from an ant here.
He realised how absurd it was for him to put effort in hiding because all it would take was a quick sweep of spiritual sense and he would be seen through. Now that dawned a new question on Ryu.
"How will it react if it finds me?". Ryu didn't dare believe that because they were of the same race ,the demon would be merciful.
It was a matter of a bigger fist.
Either subdue it with absolute strength or be subdued. Ryu could feel the pride oozing of the body of this creature even as it hadn't shown itself yet. But mostly he could feel it's rage, the pain and also shame like being in this place was a huge humiliation on its part.
He didn't quite understand what was going on so he turned his attention to the experts aboard the convoy and couldn't help but sigh in pity.
This people were nothing more than lambs in front of what was waiting for them and they weren't even aware of how doomed they were. Ryu thought for sometime on what to do. He even thought of waiting it out for both parties to fight it out and he'll definitely loot them but how was he going to get such a prideful creature to act against people it deemed as ants.
Ryu felt a sever headache coming, he had been using too much brain power this days and still he hadn't had any good outcomes from his over thinking. He relaxed an laid back in the wagon. After all it had stopped and he was 100 percent sure the demon won't attack them anytime soon so he might as well get some nice sleep.
Meanwhile the experts already flew towards the front carriage to see why it stopped and all they saw was a driver who passed out , suddenly they could feel the pressure in the surroundings and they immediately understood why the driver has passed out.
"Show yourself whoever you are, are you such a coward pulling such petty tricks??" The expert who was donned in blue clothes and even had a veil over his face said .
While Ryu shook his head in pity before releasing another sigh.
"What an idiot??" He muttered softly and closed his eyes.
The experts didn't really expect that just a few jabbing words would draw out such an expert who could make them feel so much pressure but they also knew how rogue cultivators could be shameless, they had concluded that it might be a rogue transcendent who needed some resources and decided to rob the convoy but how wrong they were , they were about to find out.
"Hmph"
Just a simple snort, that was all it took to blow the expert who had spoken away crashing into about a hundred trees in a straight line before coming to a stop. His bones were broken , his inner organs were now paste .
How stupid was it to go test an angry demon?? That was the answer.
The remaining experts trembled from head to toe as they looked at the long clearing that had been made just by a simple snort.
What exactly were they dealing with??